Its Only Forever
by The Lady Gen
Summary: Sequel to Forever and Ever. What more can I say. Really good read.
1. Chapter 1

Okay everyone, I am back! On with the story. Thanks for all the kind reviews with the last story. I hope this is as well received. Don't worry, I will stay true to Sarah and to Jareth, the sexy beast. Keep reviewing, it helps me write and think of new plots. P.S I don't own the Labyrinth

Once upon a time, not too long ago, a child was born. It was a girl child. A beautiful girl child with dark brown hair and deep emerald green eyes.

The child was an orphan. Her mother was not known. She was born and then she was placed in an orphanage a few hours later. She was abandoned so quickly it seemed that she came into being on her own. The nuns of the orphanage cooed over her. Such a pretty baby! Fate could be cruel to parentless infants, but this one it seemed would not be parentless for long. Who could resist such a pretty child!

The child was like any other child, or so it seemed. She laughed like any other child. She smiled.She slept like any other child. She dreamed. She cried. She did everything that a normal child was suppose to do.. From outward appearances, this child was a beautiful child, but also very normal.

Or so it seemed.

When the child was bought out for viewing, the couple who hoped to adopt her, marveled over the perfectly formed limbs and the pretty pink seashells that were her ears."Look at her eyes" the husband whispered, "How beautiful and dreamy they are! She is going to become an actress!" The baby began to clap her hands together and gave a squeal. This was not some fairy tale foundling that had desperate need of a fairy godmother, oh no. This was an absolutely normal child.

Or so it seemed.

The child was bought home and placed within a light airy room. A crib had been placed near the windows so that the child might look at the trees swaying outside.The parent's of this girl had bought pink toys and a pink layette set for the crib. This was their first girl child and they had wanted her to have every comfort. The parents doted on the girl for a little while, making her laugh and smile before they tucked her into the crib for the night, pausing to kiss her on the forehead and turn off the lights. The adopted mother paused outside the door for a second before she closed it. She looked in the direction of the sleeping baby and gave a contented sigh, "You are ours now" she said with a smile. The adopted father patted his wife on the arm before ushering her out and closing the door.

The child lay still in the crib. She didn't coo when the wind began to blow the tree outside the window. Instead she curled her tiny hands and watched. From the distance an owl hooted and appeared on the tree branch outside. It's black eyes darted around until it found the child.

The sky blackened and a there was a flash of lightening. The window opened and a gust of air blew through the room. The child remained silent in her crib.

From out of the darkness, a leather boot stepped into the room, followed by another. A man in a dark cloak walked into room, spilling glitter as he went. His eyes were like no other human being's. His eyes were fey.

Walking closer to the crib, the man, or the fey being, stretched forth gloved hands. He leaned over and deftly picked up the silent infant.

"Sarah" he breathed. The infant cooed and tried to gasp hold of the fey's shirt. "I know, I know, little one" Jareth whispered gently, holding the baby close to him, "If your eyes could talk, they would say my name. They would say Jareth." Jareth bounced the baby gently, calming her agitated squirming.

"You are mine" Jareth vowed. "Someday you will come back to me." He looked at the green eyed infant in his arms. His eyes closed and a lone tear trickled out and slid down a sharp cheek bone. "You are _mine_, forever."

Jareth laid a kiss on the baby's forehead and then with the greatest care, laid her in the crib. He smoothed the blankets and stepped back. He snapped his fingers and two small goblins appeared. They giggled madly at the sight of him, but Jareth raised his gloved hand and they cowered low to the floor.

"Sire" one of the goblins rasped. The other one stood mute beside him, bobbing his hairy head madly.

"Watch the baby. Never let her out of your sight. Watch the parents also. It's not likely, but they could say the words. Parents are so fond of wishing away their children these days."

"Yes sir, yes sir!" the goblin squeaked excitedly.

"Shut up!" Jareth snarled and gave him a sharp nudge in the side. "And whatever you do, watch the baby. Make sure no harm comes to her. And for goodness sake, stay out of sight. Don't draw attention to yourself...or to her." The goblins nodded together and then slithered quickly out of sight, blending in with the toys in the room. Jareth looked at them with distaste. He would have Didymus or Hoggle come and tend her, to keep watch over her and protect her, but their absence from the Underground would be noted. These two goblins were like any one of the hundreds that dwelled in the Goblin City. They wouldn't be missed.

Jareth looked at the now sleeping child in the crib with a wistful expression. "We may have to wait until you can talk for you to say the words my precious Sarah." He walked to the window and it opened. His cloak swirled around him as he prepared to shift to his owl form, "No matter. Its only forever my dear, really not that long at all."


	2. Chapter 2

Hey everyone. I am back. Thanks so much for the kind reviews. I am glad that people like the idea of a sequel. I am pretty amazed that this whole story has been received so well. I only got two or three bad reviews. Lol. I will try to make you guys happy and bring it, so to speak, to this story. I apologize for the wait, but I had to devote my time slaving over insipid English others instead of writing about our hero, Jareth. Grr. Okay, on with the show.

"Sarah" Jareth cooed, Holding out his arms to the toddling baby Sarah. Jareth sat three feet away from the child, crouched down, holding out his arms. He was attempting to make her walk to him.

They were outside and it was a sunny fall day. The fallen leaves were being gently blown around them, partly due to the gentle fall wind and partly due to Jareth's magic.

Sarah was attempting to walk, but kept on falling back down. The knee's of her pink corduroy overalls were stained with grass. Giggling and holding her arms out to Jareth, she tried to coax him to her. Jareth was almost won by her bright open smile, but he managed to stand his ground.

"Now, now" Jareth reprimanded. "You must learn to walk sometime. Can't having you being carried all over the Labyrinth, now, can we?" Jareth smiled at Sarah and thought with relief how quickly she was growing. Her words were still gibberish, and she couldn't walk yet, but soon, very soon, she would be able to speak. And then she would be able to say the words.

"_I wish..."_

But for now, Jareth would have to content himself with watching Sarah. Occasionally, he would use his magic to lure the parents away from the baby for short periods of time, but this rarely happened because these human parents were so attentive to her.

Jareth thought how ironic it was that in this life Sarah had been given a set of parents who were so attentive to her. He remembered how much it wounded her in her past life that her mother had left her behind and her father was largely indifferent. He remembered the spoilt girl she had been, screaming because her favorite bear had been given to Toby. How everything had affected her! The spoilt naïve child. The wounded girl. All these things had drawn Jareth to her. She was so human.

Even though Jareth's mother had died, it had not affected him. He was not wounded. The cold fae blood of his father prevented such feelings. He never knew his mother, and he doubted that he would have cared for her very much if he had. Her death only stood to install in him that human beings were inferior to fae. They could be quite charming and made wonderfull play things, and in their own way, were beautiful, but they could never have the permanence of the fae.

Jareth's father never really loved Anias.

"Sarah, Sarah" Jareth murmured to child across from him, "How I did love you." Getting up he went over to stand next to the child, engulfing her in his silvery shadow. Sarah's green eyes stared up at him and she smiled. She was without fear.

Jareth was pleased with the Goblins he set to watching the child, but still every night he came in his owl form to watch and to wait.

Matters in his Kingdom were staid. It seems as if the whole entire Underground was sleeping, or holding it's breath. Jareth couldn't decide which was worse. He had heard nothing from the council, nor received word about its meetings or whereabouts. Its as if they had disappeared.

But Jareth knew better.

He knew that they were simply bidding their time, waiting, like he was waiting. Jareth didn't mind in the least. Let them wait! They were dammed anyway. Sooner or later he would catch them and destroy them, just as they had tried to destroy Sarah.

During the times he wasn't with Sarah, he sat alone in his throne room. He had thrown the goblins out and had forbidden them to enter lest they wanted wind up smelling like the eternal bog stench.

It was dark picture he. With Sarah gone, he forwent all colors and wore only black. Aside from the brief times spent with Sarah, his mind was cloudy with anger and grief. Carrying a big riding crop with him wherever he went, Jareth lashed out at any goblins that happened in his path.

The usually mischievous goblins now were silent. Going against their nature, they steeled themselves to be quiet. No one dared laugh in front of Jareth.

No, Jareth was not kind during this time.

Sir Didymus approached him once, attempting to cheer him. Hoggle, being wiser, tried to dissuade the valiant knight, but he would hear none of it. Perched on the arm of Jareth's throne, Didymus attempted to regale Jareth with stories of Sarah's past deeds, but Jareth would hear none of it. Barely keeping his anger in his check, he gave the knight the swiftest of flicks and Didymus was cast out of the throne room. It was out of knowledge that he was once one of Sarah's valued friends that kept Jareth from kicking poor Didymus out instead.

Didymus flew out of the room and with a flick of Jareth's wrist the doors slammed shut and that was that.

When he could not be with her, anything that reminded him of Sarah was too painful to bear. This was the reason why Jareth took pains to avoid Hoggle, Didymus and Ludo. He would have banished them to some remote corner of the Labyrinth, but he knew that Sarah would have been aghast.

It was this hope of Sarah's eventual return that kept Jareth contained. Cruel, but contained.

Turning his mind back to the present, he leaned down and picked Sarah up his arms. She laughed with delight and stuck her hands on his crescent pendent and tugged.

"Not yet" Jareth told her. Conjuring a crystal, he held up for her to see. The brilliance of the crystal made Sarah's eyes glow. Throwing it up in the air, it shattered gently and out of it came a shower of small stars and crescents. Sarah stared at it in awestruck.

"Look, Sarah. Its the stars" Jareth whispered to her, bouncing her up and down in his arms. Sarah laughed with delight and with her small chubby fists tried to grasp the falling glitter.

"Just say the words Sarah" Jareth told her, "and it will all be yours".


	3. Chapter 3

thanks for sticking with me! Please Review and add any suggestions for what you want to happen.

"Have Grimlit come to me when he returns from his work" Jareth commanded to one of his Goblins. He was lounging in his throne room, one booted foot swinging lazily over the arm of his chair while his right arms flicked a horse whip against the ground.

"You were saying, My Lady?" Jareth drawled sarcastically, his face lined with impatient.

"You did well to send the child away and keep her in the mortal world" came Lady Gen's soft voice. Sitting primly in a chair she had conjured for herself, her lavender skirts swirled gently downwards, she looked no older than when Jareth had first met her.

"It is not time yet" Jareth said with caution in his voice.

"No, I suppose not" Lady Gen examined her nails, trying to keep her eyes downcast so that she wouldn't arouse Jareth's anger or suspicion. He seemed to turn on everyone these days.

"They are everywhere, Goblin King"

"Who?" Jareth said said in a bored tone, flicking his whip harder.

"You know who I speak of" Lady Gen said, fighting to keep her demure stance.

"The Council" Jareth spat.

"Yes, the Council" Lady Gen rose and smoothed her skirts. "Some of the herd was poisoned. I am not sure who exactly did it, but they are dead."

"And?" Jareth shrugged with indifference, "What do you want me to do?"

"Use your influence, Goblin King" Lady Gen's eyes pleaded. "Have some compassion..."

"Damm you woman!" Jareth shot up from his chair and stalked towards her, holding his whip out in front of him. His mismatched eyes turned a cloudy grey.

"You want me to use my influence? Is that right?" Lady Gen stood still and said nothing.

"I have been a friend all these years to you..." she began but Jareth laughed in his old cruel way.

"Why are you even here?" Jareth asked, transforming his whip into a long dagger. "Do you think I give a damm if your wretched beasts die?'

"You need me, Jareth" Lady Gen thundered. "It isn't finished and you know it."

"The Council lives in terror because of me" Jareth tossed his knife at the stone with great force. It stuck in the mortar between the stones.

"_They_ live" Lady Gen said with brevity, "That is the point" Jareth's eyes narrowed and he ripped off one of his gloves. Conjuring a crystal in his hand, he looked at Lady Gen and then crushed it into his palm. The shards fell to the ground along with splatters of Jareth's silvery blood.

"Apparently" Jareth smiled, "I am living as well"

"She can't come back to the Labyrinth with things happening the way they are" Lady Gen. She looked at the blood with distaste. "If they _knew..." _

"Enough" Jareth growled. "Get off my Lands. Leave me" Lady Gen gathered up her skirts and flicked her long mane of hair back. Her hazel eyes glinted with anger.

"I will leave you to your thoughts" her eyes looked at his ravaged face, "Everyone is going to be effected by your feud Jareth. Not everyone is going to take kindly to your little rebellion. People that had no grief with the Council are now pitting themselves against you"

"Go" Jareth repeated coldly. "Just go"

She left and Jareth did not watch her go.

He stood at the window, looking out onto the Labyrinth. His hand still dripped but he did not notice. With cold, calculating eyes, he watched the ever present purple clouds darken as the wind blew harder. His white blond hair moved with the wind, but his face was set in stone, in complete anger.

The sun never shone in the Labyrinth anymore.

"My Lord?" came Grimlet's timid voice.

"The girl?" Jareth asked without turning around.

"All is well, according to her care keepers"

"Go"

The Goblin scurried away.

Sarah was walking now. Every chance he could, Jareth went to her and appeared in his human form. He didn't come often because it was hard to charm her earth parents away from her, they were so attentive.

She was saying words now, but Jareth was questioning the wisdom in bringing her to Labyrinth. It was true what Lady Gen said.

Jareth had angered many of the neighboring kingdoms. The Goblin King had always been something of a rebel, but now he was despaired of and despised in the Underground.

Jareth's power base was strong. He did not worry. He would not worry. _He _moved the stars for no one. Let the Council make the first move and come after _him._ He was ready.

As much as he wanted Sarah to come to the Underground, he knew that he would have to wait until she grew up. Then things might be different. He hoped that all his conflicts would be resolved, and that more or less everyone on the Council would dead.

Dead.

So far, only Lady Gen suspected (or knew) where Sarah was and what Jareth had done. He did not care that she knew. She would not tell anyone.

Still, it would not do to have others suspect that he shared secrets with the Queen of the Wild Horses. He would do this alone.

Each day, Jareth's heart ached for Sarah. Still, he decided he would not bring her here. He would not lose her again. Jareth would let Sarah grow up in the mortal world. It was probably best this way anyways. The Labyrinth was a place where you wished away children to become Goblins, it was not a place to raise them.

It would be a difficult transition for Sarah when she came here. Jareth could only wait for her to grow up and hope that the mortal world would not spoil her. He remembered Sarah as the insolent angry teenager, hurt and abandoned by a star crazed mother and an aloof father. Sarah's current earth parents were no such people. He had no concern over Sarah's welfare. They doted on her as her other parents never had.

His only worry was for her safety. Sarah was Jareth's only weakness and if anyone even suspected what he had done, they would kill her again.

Jareth promised himself that nothing would ever happen to Sarah again. He would build a world for her where she could be protected always.

He just prayed that she remembered him.


	4. Chapter 4

Omg, I love you guys, You guys are the greatest. Thanks for the reviews. I couldn't and wouldn't write so well if it weren't for those reviews. I hope you like this chapter.

"And the girl said 'Give me the child' and the Goblin King said..." Sarah recited dramatically brushing two pony tails of long sable hair out of her face

"No!" her best friend screeched. "You are telling too scary stories again, and I don't wanna listen! I am going to tell my mom if you go on Sarah" Sarah looked at her friend with sad eyes.

"But don't you want to hear about the Goblins and the Goblin King?" she asked.

"No. They are monsters!"

"They are not monsters" Sarah began gently. Her friend sucked her thumb and shook her head vehemently.

"Oh yes they are! What about those orange things. The ones that take your head off?"

"Yes" Sarah wrinkled her small nose "They are kinda monsters. But the rest aren't." Her friend looked at her for a moment.

"You are weird Sarah" The little girl's eyes wandered to Sarah's bed stand where she kept a small leather bound book. _The Labyrinth_ it read in gold script. "You read too much, especially that funny book. Where did you get it? Your parents gave it to you?"

"It just sorta appeared there" Sarah's green eyes glimmered, "Like it was magic or something." Sarah's friend sighed in frustration.

"Can't we do anything normal?" she huffed. Sarah shrugged her small shoulders indifferently.

"Like what? Playing pretend is more fun than anything!"

"I don't think so, lets play dolls" Sarah made a face.

"I don't have any barbies" she said unapologetically. She brushed off her over-alls and jumped on her bed. "They are so _boring_" she complained.

"Why don't you ask your mom to get you some. I bet she would" Sarah's friend pouted. She was a chubby red haired little girl with freckles the size of lady bugs. She liked playing with Sarah,_ well_ actually, she liked playing at Sarah's_ house._ Her room was done up with frills and lace, and it had a huge canopy bed with a skirted ruffle. Sarah's dad built her a Victorian doll house, which Sarah never played with, much to her friend's disgust, and Sarah's mom was always in the kitchen making cookies and fun snacks.

She liked Sarah mostly, but she liked Sarah more because of all the things she had.

"Kelly?" Sarah's mother appeared in the doorway, "It's time to get ready to go home. Your mom is coming to pick you."

"Alright" Kelly said in a relieved voice. Sarah's mother went downstairs, and Kelly began to gather up her things in a hurried manner.

"Dolls tomorrow, then?" Sarah asked, trying hard to be fair. She wanted Kelly to keep seeing her and playing with her. Despite her lavish surroundings, Sarah was very much the loner among the neighborhood children. Only Kelley, drawn by Sarah's bedroom and the snacks that her mother provided, dared to become Sarah's best and only friend.

"Okay" Kelley said hesitantly, "Only this time, no play acting, alright. Goblins are too scary!" Sarah frowned.

"They wouldn't hurt you!"

"What" Kelley heaved her knapsack onto her shoulder, "What did you say?"

"Oh nothing" Sarah shrugged. "See you tomorrow" she added brightly.

"Yeah, tomorrow" Kelley headed downstairs without looking back. Sarah watched her go, expecting that at any moment she would turn back and give Sarah a warm goodbye, but she didn't.

After awhile, Sarah flopped on her bed, facing the ceiling.

"Goblin King..." she murmured, " Goblin King...take me..."

"Sarah, you really shouldn't wear your shoes on the bed dear, it gets the quilt dirty" Sarah mother said.

"Okay Mommy" Sarah swung her feet off the bed.

"Did you have a nice time playing with Kelly?" Sarah's mother asked.

"Yeah sure" Sarah said.

"Sarah" Sarah's mother began, going into Sarah's closet, " I bought you all these pretty dresses, and yet you persist in wearing those overalls, don't you like dresses?" She held a particularly frilly yellow dress with puffed sleeves and a gathered skirt.

"I guess" Sarah pouted, "The sleeves remind me of ball gown dresses. They are too frilly..."

"But they are so pretty dear" Sarah's mother held up the dress to Sarah's face, " You are such a pretty girl when you wear them. This would make you look like a fairy princess."

"I"m not a fairy Mommy" Sarah said solemnly. Sarah's mom burst out laughing.

"No dear. As much as you like play acting and Goblins, I thought that you would like to play the part."

"What does that mean, Mommy?" Sarah asked.

"It means" Sarah's mother began to put the dress back into the closet, "That you would do your best to look like a fairy."

"I don't think fairies would look like me" Sarah told her. Her eyes were serious.

"Fairies are pretty" her mother said sitting next to Sarah on the bed, "Just like you"

"I don't think so."  
"Sarah" her mother said, stroking Sarah's silky sable hair, "Do you think that you are ugly?"

"No" Sarah said, "It's just that I don't think fairies look like me. They look different."

"Is that so?" Sarah mom chuckled. "I would think that fairies look a sight better than Goblins." She glanced at the red covered book that lay on her daughter's bed stand. She didn't remember buying Sarah that book, and couldn't think of anyone that would have given her such a thing, but she knew that Sarah liked it and read it often, asking her mother for help with the bigger words. Sarah's mother wished that she wouldn't read such a story, but other than the Goblin King turning children into goblins, she couldn't see anything seriously wrong with the book. It didn't give Sarah nightmares at any rate. Not that Sarah scared easily, she thought to herself with pride and wariness.

Sarah was definitely a precocious child. Special and well..._vibrant_. But sometimes it would be easier for the child if she had just been average.

Looking tenderly at her daughter with tenderness, she told her to go get ready for bed. Sarah jumped off the bed to oblige and Sarah's mother left the room.

When Sarah's teeth had been brushed and her pajamas put on, Sarah's mother kissed her daughter and tucked her in the blankets.

"Goodnight my fairy princess" she told her daughter. Sarah giggled.

"Goodnight Mommy!" Sarah's mother turned off the light and gently closed the door. Sarah turned on her side and pulled the blankets up to her chin. Thinking pleasant thoughts, she soon drifted off, warm and content in the safety of her room. She never felt the gloved hand that touched her cheek with the softest of touches, nor did she a voice like silk that whispered in her ear

"Goodnight _my_ Faerie Princess."


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry for the long break! I am so glad that everyone gave such nice reviews. Thank you so much! You guys keep me humble. The kind reviews I receive keep me going. You have no idea. Life gets so dreary and mundane. Sometimes, its really only the dreams that give me comfort and keep me going.

Several years later, nineteen year old Sarah sat at the dinner table, discussing college prospects with her adopted parents.

"Really Sarah! I know how much you love theater, but wouldn't you be better off choosing a college that is..."

"Solidly grounded in the liberal arts" her father added. Sarah sat between her parents at the dinner table, feeling crushed by their disapproval. She had just dropped the bomb that she wanted to study theater and only theater.

Disapproval.

"Pass the peas, please" Sarah said.

"Dear.." her mother began, "The rest of your friends are going to be persueing something practical. Science majors, business. Goodness Honey, you could even try your at hand at English, but theater?"

"The rest of my so called friends are hapless idiots" Sarah told her mother calmly.

"Now Sarah, thats no way to talk about people. Honestly...you would think..." her mother trailed off and stared morosely at her dinner plate.

"Sarah" her father began nervously, "What your mother is trying to say is that its not a practical idea. Why not just minor in theater?"

"Why not just stick a varsity sweater on me and tape my head to a toilet for the next three years?" Sarah muttered sarcastically, "It would be the same thing to what you guys are trying to make me do."

"Sarah" her mother fidgeted with her napkin, picking it up and putting it down, "We want you to be happy, but we also want to be practical. This is your life!"

"Exactly!" Sarah's green eyes blazed. "I don't want to be like the rest of my friends. I know I might not be a success..."

"Dear, we are not saying that you are not talented!" her mother said exasperatedly. She poked her husband in the ribs.

"Sarah you _do_ show talent in that area, but it could be a hobby while you pursue more serious studies."

"I'm not saying that I will be successful at it" Sarah told them, "But I don't want to waste the better part of my life doing something I barely like."

"Sarah you are so young" her mother took Sarah's hand in her own and stroked, " You are becoming such a beautiful woman, and we have done our best to ensure that you have never wanted for anything but soon you are going to be adult. You will find that an adults life is filled to the brim with things that you barely like. Some things you downright hate."

"I don't want to be like everyone else" Sarah told her parents. "I know it sounds conceited, but its true. I have this chance to be different and follow my dreams and I want to take it!"

"Sarah" her mother began again, this time in an angry tone. Her father flinched and looked down at his plate. "Please don't be difficult. The chances of you being a success at acting are slim. Don't you want to be successful?" Sarah stared evenly at her mother, trying to keep the anger from her emerald eyes.

"I want to be me."

"You are throwing your life away if you do this" her mother said. Sarah's father groaned and looked helplessly between his wife and daughter.

"Darling please, we just want whats best for you" he told his daughter. Bitting his lip, he looked at his wife for support, but she sat sullenly in the chair.

"I feel like all my life, people have been deciding whats best for me" Sarah said, getting up from her chair. She cocked her ear to the side, as if trying to remembering something. She had felt this way before...a long time ago it seemed.

"Sarah..." her father began, reaching out for her, but Sarah's mother interrupted.

"You want to live in a fairy land! Honestly Sarah, you need to grow up and face facts!" Sarah blushed crimson in anger.

"Is doing what I want such a crime?"

"It is when you are so obstinately selfish!" her mother screeched. Sarah was taken back. All her life, she had never known her mother yell at her with such anger.

"I just want you to be...normal."

"What do you mean?" Sarah forced out. Her head spun. She could not believe this! Her mother had been her staunchest supporter all these years. Now on this night, she was turning against Sarah. It was too much.

"Sarah, all your life you've been fascinated with tales of Goblins and fairies, and remember the monsters, Harold?" She turned towards her husband for support.

"They aren't killers!"

"See!" her mother exclaimed jumping up, "Thats exactly what I mean! No one normal stays fixated with fairy tale well after the age of eleven. But not you Sarah! No, never _you._ Now you are hellbent on finding a career where you can prance across the stage like a goddamn fairy princess!" Sobbing wildly, she said, "None of your friends are doing this." Sarah's eyebrows rose up. Gritting her teeth, she went up the stairs to her room.

Slamming the door extra hard, she fought not to scream, "Its not fair!" Huffing, she sat at her vanity table, which was covered in with makeup and various perfume bottles. Sarah was constantly experimenting with her look. She never felt quit comfortable in her own body.

Looking in the mirror, she knew that she was pretty. Pretty in the conventional way. Pretty in the way people, especially boys her age, and now her mother, wanted her to be. But Sarah wanted more. She wanted to achieve a sort of presence.

Opening a chair, she reached in and fumbled around, searching for the red leather bound book that she loved so Well. The Labyrinth.

Hugging it to her chest, she murmured, "I wish you were real."

Looking around her room, she glanced at the various stuffed animals and figurines that resembled magical beings, she whispered "I wish all of this were real."

She sat still at her vanity, intently peering into the mirror as if hoping a change might come at that very second.

Nothing.

"Damm" Sarah whispered. Looking around her childhood room, she repeated the curse, slamming her fist on the Labyrinth book each time.

"If I die alone and ordinary, its all your fault" she told her reflection. Sighing, she leaned forward and rubbed off the lipstick she wore that day. Grimacing she rose and stretched and headed to her bed.

Its frilly lacy canopy that had won her so many artificial childhood chums now repelled her. It was something that her mother had picked out for her.

She loved her mother. She was sure that she did. Looking around her room, she could see all the comforts that her mother and father had provided for her. Surely that was love?

Going into her closet, Sarah fingered the expensive garments that her mother had brought for her, top of the line. Surely that was love?

Her fingers brushed the prom dress that her mother had designed and then paid someone to create for Sarah's senior prom. Sarah had remembered putting it on, and then standing with her date for the customary photos taken by beaming parents.

Horrible experience. All that smiling and carrying that she did should have merited her an Oscar.

She had also remembered slipping her date a hundred bucks to get lost. Sarah spent prom night wandering beside Crystal Lake, a lake that was near her house.

She had pranced about the lake shore in her sequined ball gown, wading into the water up to her ankles, wishing that she had the power to fly.

There was a full moon that night, and it only added to Sarah's longing to be somewhere magical. An owl had watched her from its perch in the tree. It hooted at Sarah as she danced along the shoreline and swaying in and out of the lake weeds.

To Sarah, it seemed that the owl was smiling at her. Laughing at her.

Sarah didn't mind. Instead she swept up her skirts and leapt out of the water. Going to the tree where the owl was perched, she danced around it, pretending that the owl was a prince or a king, like the sorcerer in Swan Lake, only this owl prince was not evil.

This prince was a dashing young man, with muscles sculpted from iron and with an alabaster body. She imagined vividly that he would be different because of his eyes, two mismatched eyes. Eyes that shone like jewels.

She bowed to the owl and pirouetted around the tree, holding her skirts as she danced.

To her, it was the perfect prom experience. She would have no other. The night sky and moon was her audience, and the lake, with its sound of cicadas and gently rolling waters provided the rhythm to Sarah's own music. She hummed a song that she had heard in her head. She knew only the melody.

The words never came to her.

Reaching her bed, finally, Sarah collapsed into it. Clutching a pillow, she hummed the melody that stayed with her ever since that night. It was maddening! If only she could remember the words.

The words...

Outside an owl hooted. Comforted somehow, Sarah pressed her face against the pillows and slept.


	6. Chapter 6

Sarah lay on her bed, listening to Ella Fitzgerald's "Isn't it Romantic". She had just spent the day in the park reciting one of her plays. In fact she was still wearing a filmy lavender dress that she tossed over her jeans and shirt. It clung to her body and laced up the front like a mid evil dress.

Sarah had taken precautions to wear that dress. Anything having to do with theater and acting was taboo in her household. Sarah avoided her parents like the plague, and they did their best to be stoically icy to her, hoping that with enough time and enough disapproval she would come around to their thinking, that she would give up her dream of becoming an actress and go to business school or even become a teacher.

Sarah didn't want to go to business school, and she certainly didn't want to teach. She couldn't even stand her own teachers.

Sarah's mother still held out hope that her daughter would conform and be...ordinary. She relished the fact that her daughter was the prettiest girl in town. It tickled her that all the boys would come running after Sarah if she ever called them, if she ever did.

She never did.

Sarah's mother loved that her daughter gave all the outward appearances of being normal and beautiful. She held onto Sarah's beauty like it were a shinning beacon of hope. Hope that her daughter would follow the paths of the other girls around her. Attend prom, be a straight A student. Excel in the the things that normal pretty girls are meant to excel in.

But Sarah never did any of these things. Her grades were poor, although she tested high. Her teachers said she was lazy and never gave her work serious effort. Sarah's mother wasn't especially alarmed by this. After all when she was a girl, she was a varsity cheer leader and so calculus wasn't at the top of her priority list either. But still, if only Sarah had friends, it would make things alright.

But Sarah didn't have any friends. Kelley was her last real friend and that had been before Sarah turned seven.

After the fifth grade, all the girls in town more or less shunned Sarah, citing strangeness as the main cause.

To her mother's exasperation, Sarah didn't seem bothered by any of this. She didn't mind eating lunch alone, day after day, reading her plays during recess while her other classmates played.

She didn't mind not getting invited to parties during high school or not going on dates. The latter she avoided like a nasty rash. Boys of all kinds would ask her out quickly when no one was around, especially other girls. But the girls caught on that Sarah was receiving all this attention and Sarah became further dammed in their eyes.

"There is such a sad...love deep in your eyes..." Sarah murmured, after the song had shut off. Toying with one of the laces on her dress she traced patterns on the bed cover.

"I wish I could remember that song. I've heard it before. Its driving me mad!" Sighing she sat up as she heard footsteps approach her room. Bracing herself, Sarah sat up straight to receive the news. Whatever it was, she felt that it couldn't be good.

Sarah's mother burst into the room, her cheeks were flushed red.

"Sarah, darling! Guess what your father and I did?"

"Umm..." Sarah mumbled before her mother rushed on.

"Well you know your aunt? Nerissa? Anyways, it doesn't matter, but we are getting a baby! A baby boy! Her daughter was pregnant, you know? At seventeen! They want to keep it in the family. So your father and I decided..."

"Wait" Sarah said, "You guys are getting the baby?"

"Why yes, silly! Isn't it wonderful?" her mother gushed. Sarah frowned.

"You guys are replacing me already?"

"Don't be like this, Sarah"

"Like what?" Sarah opened her eyes wide and glared at her adoptive mother. "Like what mother?"

"Like that? Playing the part of the injured child. Honestly, you act as if we are leaving you out in the cold. Its only a baby."

"Its only a baby" Sarah murmured. She flopped on her bed dramatically and played with her green dress. "I suppose you will give it my room?'

"Oh stop it Sarah. You could at least act happy. We are doing a good thing in giving this little baby a home,like..."

"Like you gave me a home?"

"Don't act so hurt, Sarah. You know we always treated you like were born to us. We tried to give you every opportunity possible. In fact, I think we overdid it and spoiled you."

"Stop," Sarah held up a hand, "I get what you are saying. I am sorry. I suppose I should act happy. After all, like you said, its only a baby." Sarah's mother frowned as she looked at her daughter lying on her bed. Sarah had rolled over to the side and now was staring at the mirror on her vanity.

"You need to grow up Sarah" her mother went over to the vanity table and sat down. She picked up some her daughter's perfume bottles and sniffed them. "We tried so hard to give you everything. Look at this room? Why, when I was a girl, I would have killed to have this room!"

"Your prerogative, I guess" Sarah said, not looking at her mother. "It doesn't matter to me much I suppose."

"No, it doesn't" her mother said, now looking at Sarah's makeup, "I see that now. For everything that we did for you, I don't understand how you can be so unfeeling."

"Its not that I am not grateful to you" Sarah began, "I love the two of you, but don't you see, I will die in this kind of life. Its not meant for me, I can feel it! Everyday. Its almost painful." Sarah's mother looked at the girl with sympathy now. She got up from the table and went towards the door.

"We all have to grow up Sarah. We don't live in some kind of fairy land. I'm sorry for you for that."

"I'm not" Sarah told her, "Not yet anyways." Her mother shook her head and went downstairs, leaving her adopted daughter alone.


	7. Chapter 7

* Sorry you guys for the extremely long vacation. But I am back Yay me! I've been so busy with school and work. I hope everyone out there is well and not sick. Some weird stomach flu going around.

The baby cried a lot.

Sarah tried to grit her teeth and just bear it but she couldn't. Pressing her pillow against her ears, she gave a muffled scream of frustration into the mattress. Couldn't they shut the little monster up?

Babies! Sarah scoffed and rolled onto her side. She threw the pillow across the room and it gave a small thump as it landed on the carpet. Why on earth did people have them? All they did was poop and spit up. And the smell! They smelled like moldy carpet and milk blended together and left outside to rot.

Sarah's parents had tried at first to draw Sarah into liking the baby. They put the bundled thing into her arms, hoping against hope that maybe she would walk the baby around, maybe grow to like it. Their hope was in vain.

Sarah held it, she refused to call the thing that had come into her life so ungraciously by it's given name, Toby. Sarah held the baby and then she gave it back after five brief seconds. She considered dumping the squealing stinking infant onto the ground, reasoning to herself that it was carpet and it shouldn't hurt it that much, but her mother was closer, so Sarah shoved the baby into her arms and left.

Her parents acted hurt, but Sarah secretly thought that they didn't care.

School was out, but Sarah was never at home for that reason. It was the baby. From morning till some godforsaken hour at night, it cried. Coming home from play acting in the park, Sarah was constantly tripping over baby strollers and car seats. The kitchen looked it had been hit with a baby bottle bomb, and every room in the house, except Sarah's seemed impacted with baby crap.

Sarah's trick was to grab something to eat and head out the kitchen door, practically running to the park with her costume skirt clutched in her hand. Her parents didn't comment much on her absence. For the moment, too much of their time was spent on Toby. Several of their family members had stopped by to visit with Sarah's mother and bring gifts for the baby. A few of them remarked on Sarah's absence but Sarah's mother threw her hands up in the air and said " Teenagers. I swear! Sarah's just going through a phase right now. Perfectly normal for a girl her age." She laughed and held the bundled Toby closer to her, "When I was a girl, I didn't want to be around my parents. But this one" she cooed into the baby's face, "this one likes to be around people".

"Well this is actual family" one woman noted. "Why, its almost like he is your own!"

Sarah's mother glared at the woman, "He is my own. Thats all there is to it."

"Your own in a way that Sarah wasn't. Did you know who her parents were?"

"No," Sarah's mother said, shifting the baby, "we didn't ask. It's as if she never had any parents anyway. They mentioned that she just appeared there. No sighing of anyone or anything dropping her off."

"Still, this one you know for sure. No surprises. It was all for the best that you take the baby."

"Naturally. I was the only one around fit for it..." the two women giggled like girls. "Look at all this beautiful layette clothes. Absolutely gorgeous! I told Harold that we should have gone to aunt in Italy but..."

Sarah's head ached from the constant chatter about the baby as well as the racket the little monster made. The four room of her spacious bedroom seemed to be closing in on her. Sarah longed to be gone.

She got up from her bed and went to her vanity. She grabbed the book that read "The Labyrinth" and looked thoughtful as she thumbed through the pages. Throwing it back on the vanity she said "I wish there was somewhere where you could wish a baby away." She smiled in amusement, and then Toby started crying from his nursery in the next room. She grimaced.

"Maybe not a baby" she continued, slowly pacing her room. The crying grew louder. Rain began to trickle down onto the window pane of her bedroom and outside Sarah could hear the wind pick up.

"Maybe not a baby..." Sarah repeated again. She pushed aside her lace curtains and gazed mournfully at the night. The crying still hadn't stopped. Sarah was surprised, usually it took a whimper or a hiccup to have both her parents come rushing in.

"Why should he be the lucky one?" Sarah murmured, blowing breath against the cold glass. The rain was coming down heavily in big fat drops. Sarah watched it darken the cement outside. Even though the window was closed, she thought she could smell the rain, the wetness of the grass, and that dark, dank smell that always accompanies rain.

"Why he be so luck to leave this place" she muttered. "I wish..." Sarah began.

"I wish that I could leave this place" she said. Sarah glanced hopefully outside her window, half expecting some chariot of sort to be hovering, ready to whisk her away to never never land or at to no baby land, but there was nothing. The baby was still crying.

"Cry, cry, cry" Sarah grumbled, "Thats all you ever do you little monster. Cry! God, I could cry right now, but I won't." She whipped around and went to her vanity again and began putting on her makeup.

"I won't cry" she told her mirror. She put on bright red lipstick and then reached for her brush to brush out her hair. "Life is so suppose to be too short for crying. That's what everyone says. Its bad enough with all this mundane crap. Life is suppose to be beautiful."

Sarah reached into her drawer and brought out a fake double strand of pink pearls. She also grabbed some hair pins and began to pile up her hair on top of her head.

When she was finished, she put some pink peach blush on her checks and put another coat of lipstick on. It didn't make her look like a street walker, but it did reinforce the idea of a little girl playing with her mother's makeup, although Sarah made a very pretty little girl.

"Perfect" Sarah said, smacking her lips. She got up and went to her closet and threw on a loose green gown that came to her lower ankles.

She thought about bringing a small bag, but she decided against it. Instead she grabbed her red lipstick off her vanity and stuck it into the pocket of her jeans. She opened the window and looked out into the now calm night. The rain had stopped, but the air was still damp and the smell of rain hovered.

Sarah lifted one leg and was about to climb out the window but then she stopped and ran back to her vanity table. "I can't forget this" she said and tucked the small book into an inner pocket of her garment.

Sarah wondered the lonely shores of the lake. It was dark and there was no moon, but Sarah could see well from the lights from the houses and the streets. The reeds were still and heavy from the rain.

Sarah walked undisturbed along the lake, listening to the peace and quiet. Once or twice she heard the flutter of wings from the shadows beyond the patch reeds, but she assumed it was some loons nesting and paid no attention, she was too busy reveling in the quiet.


	8. Chapter 8

I am sorry guys for the short chapters, but you know brilliance takes time, and time from me! Lol. I miss you guys and someone once said that love is reviews. So review please, only be nice, alright, I have a cold and I've just finished a hellish week where I wrote one paper about how love is like an onion, from the novel "Peel My Love Like an Onion" and another paper on Ben Jonson poem, "To still be Neat". Goodness, it was difficult. I think I yawned my brain into a coma.

Sarah crouched to ground and gathered up some stray pebbles in her hand. Listening hard to the silence, she threw the pebbles determinedly at the water.

_**Splash**_.

Sarah strained her ears, listening for any stray footfalls behind her, but she could hear nothing. Tensing her hands into fists, she spun around.

There was nothing there.

She turned towards the water again, still listening. Sarah had never encountered anyone during her solitary walks along the lake. Sometimes, she thought she might run into couples on a date, or maybe the local wino, but no. Sarah was always alone when she came here. It was like it was magic. Magic that kept the common folk away.

"Magic" Sarah said to herself, smiling in an amused way.

**"Magic"**

Sarah laughed and bent to gather more pebbles. She threw them into the lake more slowly this time, still chuckling over the thought of magic.

"I wish I knew some magic" Sarah said. "Any magic would do". Sarah wiped her hands on her skirt and then sat on the ground, looking out at the lake. The water glittered in the dark moonlight.

"There's such a sad love..." she sang, and then stopped.

"Damm. I wish I could remember more" she said. She started humming the melody to herself, deeply entranced. She didn't notice the bird perched in the tree behind.

It was an Owl.

"Such a sad love...deep in your eyes, a kind of pale Jewel..." Sarah sang again. Sarah's own green eyes widened in concentration. "It sounds like a love song" she said to herself.

"A beautiful love song" she murmured, hugging her knee's close to her. A sudden wind made the trees shiver around her. Sarah stood up, brushing at her skirt and hugging her arms because her flesh prickled with a chill.

Making her way to the water's edge, Sarah stopped and looked at her reflection. It was clear enough in the moonlight, but there was something about the water that made it obscure rather than murky.

"Maybe it was the earlier rain" Sarah told herself. She stepped closer to the water, but did not quit put her feet in the shallow depths.

The water seemed a darker blue than before, but Sarah told herself that it couldn't be possible. Where was the moonlight?

Sarah glanced at the sky and searched for the moon. It seemed to be hiding in the clouds. The lights from the street lamps way behind Sarah did not allow it to be completely dark, but Sarah felt uneasy. Some of the light was gone. It was as if it was hiding.

Sarah thought she saw the water flicker and move even though it was motionless moments earlier. Sarah peered closer but still did not touch.

"What is that?" she said. She reached out with a hand that was covered in bracelets and gilt rings to the touch the water, even though somewhere deep inside, a very human warning bell was going off in her head.

Nobody said Sarah wasn't reckless.

"What is it?" she repeated to herself. The tip of her nail touched the water and then everything around her was completely still and utterly dark, it was as if the night had stopped and the stars literally refused to shine.

Scared now, Sarah spun around, preparing herself to sprint for home when she bumped into something that was not standing in the sandy reed shore before.

Sarah gasped in surprise when her fingers grasped a leather breastplate. Looking up, Sarah found herself staring into a pair dazzling mismatched eyes. She took a wide step backwards into the water and Jareth stepped with her.

"It's..you" Sarah sputtered. The face with the mismatched eyes and the aquiline nose gazed at Sarah, tense and withholding any expression. Atop of his leather armer on his chest, a half-moon pendent glittered in the darkness.

"It's you!" Sarah choked out. "Your from the Labyrinth!"

Sarah looked at his hands and realized they were lying on his chest. She blushed and instinctively stepped back from him, going deeper into the water, however the hem of her long green skirt was weighed down with water and her foot sunk into the wet sand.

Losing her balance, Sarah flinched, waiting to get soaked with the cold lake water, but Jareth stopped forward and grabbed her by upper arms. Lifting her out of the water he set her on the solid ground.

Sarah found that she couldn't tear her gaze from his eyes. His eyes...."There's such a sad deep love deep in your eyes..." she murmured. Jareth blinked and raised a brow.

"Sarah" Jareth said.

"How do you know my name?" Sarah asked, still unable to look away from his mismatched eyes. "How could you know my name?" she asked.

"How could I not know your name" Jareth said, his gaze on Sarah intense. "I've known your name forever, Sarah".

"_**Your the Goblin King**_" Sarah said, still in a daze.

"I am" Jareth said. "Sarah..." Jareth's hold on Sarah tightened and at once Sarah began to panic.

"Ow...dammit. Your the Goblin King! You abduct children and run them through your Labyrinth and then turn them into Goblins! Christ! Get away from me. I wanted magic, not to be a Goblin!"

"Stop acting like a bloody fool Sarah" Jareth said calmly. "No one, certainly not me, is going to turn you into a Goblin."

"But your the Goblin King" Sarah said, struggling to remember all that she had read in the little red book. "You take children when they say..."

Jareth looked at her patiently, as if he were expecting her to say something.

Sarah swallowed and took a step back, wrenching her arms out of Jareth's grasp. Jareth moved towards her and Sarah took another step backwards and then stripped again on her skirt.

Jareth shot forward to catch her but Sarah pushed her hand out with the palms facing Jareth and propelled away from him. At the last moment,however her fingernails caught Jareth's pendent and Sarah fell on the ground, clutching Jareth's crescent pendent.

Sarah scrambled to her feet, still clutching the necklace. Her whole body was shacking from edginess. Her feet twitched and she turned to run.

Holding her skirt, she started running as fast as she could, even though the Goblin King shouted her name.

"Sarah! Sarah! Sarah!" On she ran, not daring to slow down for even second.

It started raining and still Sarah didn't slow down until she had made it to her street. She collapsed for a moment, gasping on her lawn. Her ribs hurt and her head swam with images that she didn't want to see.

Sarah looked up at the sprawling white house.

"Home" she said, although even to her own ears, it sounded doubtful.


	9. Chapter 9

Sarah had made it up the stairs without tripping in fear or alerting her sleeping parents.

When she slammed her bedroom door, she leaned against it and winced, waiting for the baby to start howling, but nothing happened.

Wondering at her luck and at her strange night, Sarah walked to her vanity, legs shaking.

Taking a tissue, she started to blot off the lipstick and make up that she had put on earlier. Perspiration had made her forehead dewy and flushed.

"This isn't real" she told her reflection. "This can't be happening" she said more firmly leaning into the mirror.

"This night...him...none of this is real. I am going to go to bed and wake up and it will have been a dream". Her pouty lips pursed together as she frantically scrubbed off the remaining lipstick.

Downstairs, the clock chimed loudly and Sarah's heart lept. Stupidly she glanced around the room, expecting someone or something to come out and attack her.

The clock stopped chiming and Sarah returned her gaze to her mirror. In her hand, she held the tissue blotted with the lipstick. Sarah flexed her fingers and gripped the tissue until it felt gritty in her hands.

The mirror, her reflection, was staring at her as it should have been, except, there was no tissue in the hand from the reflection.

Sarah felt faint from surprise and fear. Gallantly squelching her fear, she looked into the mirror.

"I must be dreaming this" she said aloud.

The girl in the mirror said nothing. It was Sarah, but it wasn't Sarah. Her eyes...they looked so strange and different.

With her free hand, Sarah tentatively touched her own eyelids. Again, the girl in the mirror did nothing.

In fact, the girl was staring at Sarah with a small smile of mirth on her face. The lipstick that Sarah had rubbed off was bright red on the girl's mouth.

Sarah uttered a curse and took a step back. The girl's smile widened and Sarah was clumsy again for the second time that night.

Falling backwards onto the plush white carpet, Sarah scrambled backwards like a crab, away from the mirror.

Breathing heavily, Sarah fought not to cry.

She did not succeed.

Sitting on the carpet, Sarah cried with fear and with shame. Never in her life had she been so afraid!

Always fearless, always spirited! That was Sarah. Not this poor girl sniveling alone in the dark on a carpet.

Sniffing heavily and wiping her face with the back of her hand like a child, Sarah slowly got up and reached into her back pocket.

The Labyrinth.

With trembling fingers, she flipped through the pages until she had reached the last scene.

"I have fought my way here to the castle...beyond the Goblin City" Sarah murmured, squinting in the dark.

"To take back the child..."

Sarah's brow furrowed as she desperately tried to remember the meaning behind the story. For although she loved the play and knew it by heart, her love for the play was based on the artificial scenes. Sarah didn't care what was good or bad, true or evil. She didn't care. Sarah loved beauty. She loved words.

She didn't bother with meaning.

To Sarah, the girl in the Labyrinth was a girl who got what she desired in an unfair world. It was black and white. Evil little brothers got wished away and the poor disheartened unwanted girl got a chance to save him.

Sarah didn't realize that the girl was selfish. She also took for granted that the Goblin was suppose to be evil and charming at the same time. The Goblin King was not to be judged or held accountable for his actions.

He just was.

Sarah shivered as she remembered his piercing eyes that had bored a hole into her soul.

His strong arms, his white slender hands that looked like a womans but gripped like a mans.

His eyes....his eyes seemed so familiar.

In vain Sarah tried to recall all that she knew about the Goblin King.

"She said...you have no power over me" Sarah mused aloud.

"He vanished when she said that" Sarah said, trying to comfort herself. "If he comes, I will just say the words, and he will go away."

Sarah peered around her room in the dark, trying to center herself. She saw her vanity mirror and her stomach turned over.

"Its not real" she said aloud. "Its not real!"

The girl in the mirror had not changed back. Instead the mirror was distorted and the girl seemed further away. Sarah had to crane her neck to see her.

Wearing what appeared to be a white gauzy ball gown, the girl was sitting on a stone balcony. Her hands were in her lap while she stared off into the distance. The hair ornaments in her hair seemed to be fluttering like a wind was blowing on them.

Sarah saw a flash of light from something at the girl's throat.

Sarah ran to her vanity table and rummaged through one of the drawers. Taking out a silk scarf,she cast it over the mirror, covering the girl from sight.

"This is crazy! I am going crazy. It must be a dream" she gasped.

"You have no power over me" she told the empty room. The silence seemed to mock her.

Sarah looked longingly at her bed. "Maybe if I just go to sleep, I will wake up and this will all have been a dream" she mused.

"I will wake up and the baby will be screaming and my parents will be back to ignoring me" she said as she tugged off her wet dress and slipped on a white sleeveless nightgown.

"I will wake up" she told herself as she pulled back the blankets and prepared to climb in. "I will forget this ever happened because this is...just"

Something scurried under her blankets. Sarah screamed and then fainted.

She would have fallen onto the floor but Jareth caught her.

"A dream" he said as he cradled her in his arms. "A dream Sarah...that is what you will have tonight."

Glaring at the small fur covered ball that had appeared from beneath Sarah's blankets, Jared said "Go!" and the thing scurried away.

Jareth laid Sarah on her bed and covered her.

He stepped back and looked around her room.

Little had changed. This Sarah's room was a bit more simplistic in its design but he recognized the signs of Sarah's tell tale adolescent clutter on the surfaces of her desk and vanity.

Looking at the girl sleeping on the bed, he saw that she still liked to put on make-up while playing at make believe.

"Just say the words, Sarah" Jareth said in his low monotone voice. "Say the words and this will all change. You can come back to me"

His leather boots whispered as he crossed the carpet and sat in the chair next a dresser. His dark mismatched eyes watched Sarah intently.

In her sleep, Sarah moaned and cried out. Jareth gripped the chair and half rose. He heard her sigh and then he settled back into the chair.

It was going to be a long night.


	10. Chapter 10

Sarah knew she was dreaming. She told herself so. She had to be dreaming. Nothing in real life had ever prepared or fueled her imagination for _this_ kind of situation.

She was in a ballroom.

Music was playing and it dipped in and out, preparing for a haunting melody that was just beginning to emerge in the background.

Sarah looked down and saw that her body was encased in a beautiful white ball gown. Touching the bodice, she felt the hard sequins of the design. Tentatively, she swished her skirts. Without a doubt, it was the most beautiful thing that she ever wore. A far cry indeed from the simple play acting outfits that she usually wore.

Hesitantly, she felt her hair. Whispers of ribbon were threaded through her hair which was piled on top of her hair in a half bun.

Sarah felt very grown up with her hair caught away from her face.

She also felt very exposed. The sequin white dress, although very beautiful, revealed more than she usually did. Her exposed back and chest felt chilly in the ballroom. Couples that were dancing whizzed by her and Sarah heard the whish of the skirts and the chill that seemed to emanate from their very dancing.

Looking around her, she saw that she was surrounded by mirrors and dancers. It was the perfect ballroom scene from out of a story book. The women and men were also dressed in attire that was appropriate for a fancy masquerade. Everyone wore masks that were common to a masquerade theme. Some of them had mouths and were shaped in smiles, but Sarah found them slightly frightening and threatening.

The men wore tight fighting pants and slim jackets with lace undershirts. The women wore ball gowns in crimsons and gold. The clothing itself on both sexes was tight and revealing. Necklines dipped on both the men and women. The fitted pants made Sarah want to blush and never look downward. The cloth accentuated every crevice and bulge.

None of them wore white. Sarah felt that she was a white conspicuous cloud among fall leaves.

People were dancing all around her. She looked at them, watching them waltzing beside her. They were all talking to each other and laughing enthusiastically.

Sarah walked slowly around them, trying not to bump into them as they danced. It seemed to her that they took no notice of her. Sarah thought that somehow they would be surprised that she was there, but this wasn't so.

They watched her though without looking at her.

Ignorant of this, Sarah did her best to push gently past them, searching for something...something that she couldn't put her finger on.

"_What am I searching for?"_ she thought to herself. The haunting melody picked up and Sarah felt a strange prickle in her spine.

"This is so familiar" she murmured, staring at the dancers. Continuing to push back the dancers, she felt the prickle intensify as a man behind a mask stepped out and moved towards her. Sarah gasped and blinked.

"He's gone" she said to herself, "Where did he go?"

The laughter in the ballroom faded out as the melody got stronger. Sarah ignored the dancers as she pushed at them more forcibly, trying her hardest to find him again.

_"As the world falls down..."_

Sarah looked frantically around. The dancers seemed to multiply and she was being pressed in from all sides. It was becoming hard to breath. Panic rose up in her heart and Sarah prepared herself to run or scream.

A hand laid itself on her shoulder.

"_Its you"_ Sarah thought in relief._ "I found you"._

The man was tall and elegant in a cold way, but Sarah didn't care about the lack of warmth. He smiled and it was sardonic and somewhat cruel. A normal person would have been wary, but Sarah pressed into his arms.

"I hardly know you" she said aloud. Dancers that were close by them laughed.

The man only smiled .

_"Though we're strangers for now..."_

Together they twirled around the dance floor surrounded by the other couples. A woman laughed loudly in Sarah's ear as she spun past her.

Sarah cringed and leaned closer to the man.

It seemed that this was a place that Sarah did not belong to.

Looking around her, Sarah felt out of place, waltzing in a grown ups daydream. She was still a teenager and thus still a child in many ways. No one had ever told her that she could feel like this in the arms of a stranger. Especially a stranger like this one. With his white gold hair and mismatched eyes, the smile that he gave was overwhelmingly deep and beautiful, but deep inside Sarah felt the danger that was part of this man.

"Your name..." Sarah began. She stopped as the danced faster. Somewhere in the distance, she heard a clock tone.

It felt like from beginning that she wasn't suppose to be here. This situation was wrong.

It was too adult.

The man gripped her waist as they spun and Sarah felt heat rise to her cheeks.

Pressed closely together by the dancers, Sarah could feel the man's hard body against her bodice. Her heart pounded fiercely as she felt the hardness of his body.

He was wearing clothes like her, but somehow she felt the heat of his body through all the layers.

The man smiled again at Sarah, guessing how she felt. Sarah blushed deeper.

The music took a turn and the man spun Sarah into him. Sarah's breath stopped in her throat and her feet stumbled clumsily beneath her tulle skirts.

The man put his hand on Sarah's back and steadied her while pressing her deeper to him. Sarah felt a tingle in the lower part of her body.

"Stop" she said. The man said nothing but his mismatched eyes gazed at her.

"Everything is dancing" she said. For although she stood pressed into the man, the dancers in th ballroom had not ceased their dancing. Sarah felt like she had done a dozen pirouettes, she felt so dizzy.

"Sarah" the man said at last.

"I am giving you your dreams."

Covered in a sweat, Sarah woke up gasping.

She clutched the bedclothes to her, struggling to orient herself.

The room was empty. Whoever was there before was now gone.

Or rather, _whatever _was there before was now gone. Sarah shivered as she recollected that the man from her dreams was not human.

He was Fae. The Goblin King to be exact.

But what did he want with _her?_

She was a young nubile girl to be sure. Sarah was smart enough to be shrewed about what most men wanted. Although she was an artistic wild child, she was not stupid.

Thank goodness.

Glancing around her to make sure that no one else was in the room, Sarah took a deep breath and calmed down.

Her fear abating, Sarah calmed down enough to think about the situation.

She smiled wryly and bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing aloud. The king of the Goblins was dancing with _her._ But whatever for? He was the KING OF THE GOBLINS. Sarah struggled to not laugh hysterically at the absurdity of the situation. Whatever magic spell had kept her parents asleep was probably gone. The last thing she needed was for them to start thinking she was losing her mind while _also_ defying social norms.

What a pity.

Really though, what girl in a fairy tale actually thought beforehand about what it meant to leave a slipper, prick your finger or eat an apple. If she remembered correctly, in the Labyrinth it was wishing children away.

Who could do such a thing?

"Somebody with no brains" Sarah murmured softly to herself. Her hands grasped her sheet as she thought about pressing against the Goblin King's body.

"It was so familiar" Sarah said aloud. The fear totally gone, Sarah climbed out of her bed and went to her vanity table, searching for the leather bound book.

"It was here somewhere."

Sarah thought that if she could her hands on the book she could find some of the answers she was looking for.

"Dammit, where did it go?" Sarah tossed perfume bottles and clutter aside as she searched on the table. Glancing at the mirror she saw that it was normal now. No strange girl was captured in the glass.

Sarah gave up on the vanity and searched the floor of room, looking for the book.

"It can't be missing!" she said. Sarah closed her eyes and tried to remember where she put it. She rubbed her temples in frustration.

She took a deep breath and looked around the room. Perfume bottles lay on the floor. In her jeans she found tissues with blotted lipstick. The dress she wore earlier lay in a heap on the carpet.

"_I won't find it. Its gone. Someone took it."_

Slowly rising from the carpet, Sarah felt a small amount of dread beginning to gather in her stomach.

"_What I remember about the Labyrinth is not enough. I just took it as a story. Nothing more...Nothing less."_

Sarah tilted her head at her thoughts.

"Nothing more, nothing...less"

_" I feel like this happened before. Why is the Goblin King seeking me out? I am just a girl. He could have anyone he want. I am not a child. I have nothing that he wants...what is it then?"_

Sarah paced her room for the rest of the night, pondering the nature of the Goblin King and desperately wishing that she had her book.

Because what she remembered was not enough. All she could do was shake her head in puzzlement and fear.


	11. Chapter 11

*Okay you lovers of Labyrinth I am back. Took a long break. School and such. Tommorow I am taking my LSAT. Please pray for me because I don't have a loaded Goblin King to wish myself away to. Anyways, here is just a warning. For all you people who can't stand it when Jareth doesn't turn to into a fuzzy bunny when he is with Sarah, find another story. Please. I am writing from the view that Jareth is cruel and sadistic. He is fae. He is not human. Therefore, we cannot expect him to act like one. This being said, I am going to be upset if someone reviews this story and calls me out for making him cruel.

P. S I don't own the Labyrinth.

Far away, in the castle beyond the Goblin City, Jareth paced.

He paced in his private chamber. It was dark in the Labyrinth. Moonlight shone into the castle through the open doors leading onto the balcony.

It was almost peaceful. With hardly any wind, it was as though the Labyrinth was holding itself still. Waiting to breath. Waiting for the calm that would come from the end of Jareth's ire.

He was angry.

The Council had taken the most precious thing from him. Sarah's life. Although she was recreated and thrived in the above ground, Jareth hated them all for taking what he most cherished and desired.

Sarah. She was _his_.

She was his from the moment she set foot in the Labyrinth. He could still remember the earnest hurt look in her dark green eyes. He could recall all the words she threw at him. He could bring forth the shine in her eyes when he first held her in the ballroom.

Under normal circumstances, say in a world where Sarah never had to die, these memories would have held great joy for Jareth.

Now they just infuriated him.

Bringing out a crystal from the palm of his hand, Jareth threw it at the wall and watched it shatter. The fragments of crystal smoked and shriveled away in acid like bubbles.

Jareth's face was cold and impassive.

"Live without your sunlight" he said.

If time and destiny had not gone against him, Sarah would have been his forever! She never would have died or suffered the way she had.

Jareth flexed his fingers inside his black leather gloves.

Curses!

Now he had to put up with a sniveling teenager again. Although Jareth saw much of Sarah as she_ was_ in the girl, he couldn't be completely sure that it was the _same _girl that had won and beaten the Labyrinth.

He worried that perhaps the time spent in the above ground may have diluted the specialness that had drawn Jareth to the girl in the first place. Not everyone could wish a baby away. Not everyone had the magical intuition to say the words.

Because of the Council, Sarah's specialness may have been tainted forever.

Jareth feverently hoped that this was not so. When he first met Sarah and had her in his Labyrinth, Jareth had found her impulsiveness and selfishness amusing. She needed to be curbed from time to time, but Jareth had held himself in check. Really he had denied her nothing. It was admirable behavior coming from a Fae. Jareth's own father had never been so kind.

She had been free to do as she pleased. He was generous. Although he proclaimed that he moved the stars for no one, Jareth would been willing to try had she asked.

There had been little time for the relationship to develop between them. Jareth knew that Sarah had loved him, but there had been no time for that love to grow. She was just a girl when she met him and when she came back to the Labyrinth. A girl who was hung up on moon beams and conventional love. She was just beginning to understand what it meant to love and be in love with a Fae. Jareth knew this and thus was patient with her. He thought that he had time for her to mature fully.

Getting use to having things going his way, and most importantly, being used to keeping what was his, the Goblin King was blindsided when Sarah died.

Now he had anther chance. But did he really?

Anger and cruelty had built up inside him to such an extent he wondered if he could handle the more "abrasive" and unrefined parts of Sarah's character. Before Sarah had died, Jareth had never felt his age. Now he felt the weight of his jaded existence.

Jareth mourned Sarah's loss deeply. On particular dark days, he sat in his throne room, holding the half disk of jade that she had liked and tortured himself of thoughts of what might have been.

Destiny had not been kind to Jareth, and as a result he was not kind to anyone. In fact, his cruelty escalated.

His subjects feared him. His punishments knew no bounds. Humor lost, Jareth was content to simply cut down anyone that got in his way or disobeyed him. His mismatched eyes watched executions without a flicker of emotion.

Without a doubt, Jareth was cruel and most ungenerous.

Ruling with an iron fist and no room for disobedience, the lesser goblins with limited intelligence found enough brains to abandon the the throne room permanently. They only came to the king when they were called.

Instead fierce beasts that walked on all fours were chained in Jareth's throne room. Resembling the fierce dogs that guarded the underworld in Greek legends, these things were ten times worse. Only Jareth could keep them under control. No one knew where Jareth had acquired them. One day they had simply appeared.

Heartless beings, given the chance, and they had many, they ripped stray Goblins to shreds. They appealed to Jareth's darker side.

Jareth stopped his pacing for a moment to look at the portrait of Sarah he had commissioned to hang in his room. Dressed in redijour white ball gown, Sarah's countenance was of dazed longing.

Jareth caressed the canvas with a gloved fnger.

"My darling Sarah, soon you will be home again."

Jareth kissed a finger tip and placed it on Sarah's lips.

This done, he strode to his balcony, throwing the doors upong in his wake.

Standing with his arms raised, Jareth's former clothing of black leather and black tights vanished as he shifted to his owl shape.


	12. Chapter 12

Hey you guys. Thanks for the lovely reviews. Thanks to all those who commererated me on continueing the story. Special shout out to aserene for all the LSAT info. P.S I think I did terribe and I am coming to terms with retaking it. Angel Buttercup...aww u are very sweet to say so.

Sarah sat in her bed with the covers pulled up to her chin.

Morning had come and the room was dappled with cheery sunlight.

Inside herself, Sarah felt no sunlight. She could only think about the turmoil of the events that happened in the night.

The dream especially. Or had it really been a dream?

Sarah shook her head remembering the hard length of the Goblin King's torso pressed against the front of her ball gown.

"_I never had a dream like that before."_

In the distance, Sarah could hear the wailing of the baby. It's mewing cries grated on Sarah's nerves. Pacing her room for the duration of the night, it was only when dawn began to show that Sarah had allowed herself to get back into bed. She reasoned that the Goblin King's hold was less powerful in the daylight. She was way off mark. The Goblin King could appear any time he choose. It just happened that more people wished away babies during the night. Something about the darkness prompted people to let go of care and concern for a child and give into selfish wishes.

Still, her reasoning had cost Sarah sleep and her last reserve of patience left for Toby's crying.

_"He seemed a creature of the night. Always dressed in black. Sinister. And yet..."_

Sarah blushed and gripped the covers. Where her thoughts had been leading her ...was un- maidenly like to say the least.

Toby let out an ear splitting shriek. Sarah growled and threw the covers on the floor.

_"Doesn't he ever stop! Someone should wish __him__ away, for God's sake!"_

As her mind was prepared to hurl out more discourse on the subjects of unruly babies, Karen, Sarah's mother, stepped into the room.

Without knocking.

"You can't even knock?"

Karen frowned and jiggled a screaming Toby on her hip. "I was not aware that I had to knock in my own house, Sarah."

Looking around her daughter's room, Karen grimaced while the baby continued it's opera of crying. "Will you look at this mess? Honestly, Sarah, you are getting too old to have your room like this!"

"Nobody asked you to come in" Sarah muttered. "Can you go away? I'm trying to get dressed."

"Just a moment young lady!" Karen admonished, "Oh Toby honey, don't pull that, thats mommy 's hair sweetie."

"Now look Sarah, Harold and I have to go out tonight to attend a charity dinner. We need you to watch the baby. Margot can't make it to babysit."

All the color left Sarah's face as she focused her stormy eyes on her adopted mother. "You just called Dad, Harold?"

Karen fidgeted and had the grace to look ashamed. "I don't know what I'm saying, Sarah. With Toby fussing, I hardly get any sleep. I guess its catching up to me."

"I guess" Sarah replied testily. "Look, if you want something, just ask. You don't have to alienate me from this family to get what you want. I will be your Cinderella baby sitter!"

At that moment, Toby gave a great heave and a river of sour milk gushed from his mouth and onto the carpet.

"Gross!" Sarah cried.

"Oh, Sarah! For goodness sake!" Karen was nonplussed at her son's spew of vomit. "You are determined to turn everything into a fairy tale. I am not some wicked step mother. If you have plans, I would understand asking you, but you never do. You live in this house and this is your brother..."

"Like Harold is my father?"

"We are leaving at eight. There are bottles in the fridge. He shouldn't be a problem." Karen turned around, leaving Sarah's statement unanswered.

Sarah walked to the door and slammed it shut. Giving a scream of dismay, she threw herself back onto the bed.

Screaming again, she thumped her pillow.

"Its not fair! She can't expect me to be her live in babysitter. The brat is not even my brother! He...Ouch!"

Sarah winced and drew her right hand towards her. She had scratched the pad of her thumb deeply on something. Reaching under her pillow, Sarah held her breath.

"It's the necklace!" she gasped. It was the half moon pendent that she had accidentally grabbed from the Goblin King.

Cupping into her hands, she felt like she was handling an icicle. It was cold.

"Must be the metal" she murmured. Sucking her thumb to stop the bleeding, Sarah palmed the necklace. She rose from the bed, still holding the amulet. Padding over to her vanity, she stood in the front of the mirror.

She squealed when she placed the amulet against the skin by her throat. "It's so cold!"

Sarah tried to sweep her hair away to finish clasping the chain when Sarah's father Harold knocked at the door.

"Sarah, are you coming down to breakfast? Mom's making pancakes and Toby's giving her a hard time."

"Just a minute!" Sarah yelled, shoving the necklace into a drawer. "I will be right there."

"Alright Toby, we are going to have a little story time!" Sarah sang out in a sing song voice.

It was close to eleven and her parents had been gone for hours. The day had been uneventful. Sarah had gotten dressed and went to breakfast. Acting normal (for her anyways) she took the baby from Karen once or twice to shut it up and to stop the ringing in her ears.

The moment she could get away, she handed the baby back and ran to her room. Wrenching open her vanity drawer, she discovered that the necklace was gone.

It was then that Sarah decided that she had two options. The first and least desirable option was she was going out of her mind and meeting the Goblin King or the dream never really happened. And as for seeing that creepy woman in the mirror, that hadn't happened either. The second option, which provided little comfort, was that someone or something had taken the book and now the necklace.

Sarah didn't know what to think.

She cursed herself for not remembering what she had read in the red book word for word. She cursed herself that her memory was so cloudy. She cursed herself that kept forgetting exactly how the story went.

She hoped that saying the story aloud might make it real again. Or at least help her remember.

"Once upon a time..."Sarah began, "In a far off land called Nowhere, there lived a girl. And this girl was beautiful."

Sarah glanced at the mirror that rested on the mantle and shrugged.

"OK, this girl was pretty"

Toby gurgled happily and then burped. Sarah wrinkled her nose.

"Eww. No interruptions. Anyways, all day long this girl slaved under the cruel rule of her evil stepmother. This evil woman made the pretty girl stay at home with the baby. Claiming that the girl had no life, her life was then forfeited to the ugly spawn of Satan, a baby's whose gastrointestinal disorders knew no bounds."

Sarah paused and looked at Toby. She had placed him in the pen that Karen had set up in the living room for him. For five minuets he could sit there, happily gurgling away. However, he soon became whiny and fussy, demanding that he be picked up.

Sarah grimaced. Karen gave in to his every whim, so that the little snot was spoiled. Sarah knew that soon he would screaming his head off, crying to be picked up.

It wasn't fair! Its not like she asked for the baby to be born, much less to be her brother.

"And so the girl was forced to sit at home, waiting on the fat lord of the baby. She was suppose to forget her dreams and in essence forget herself." Sarah grinned and paused dramatically. She was getting to her favorite part. Toby sat down and grabbed his feet. He was beginning to cry and whimper.

"But what she didn't know was that the Goblin King was in love with the girl and had given her special powers...shit! Toby, it hasn't even been five minuets yet!"

Toby, red faced, began screaming in earnest. Sarah huffed and bent down to pick him up. The backside of his shirt was beginning to get moist with sweat. Sarah rolled her eyes and wiped her hand on the back of her jeans.

"Oh I wish I could remember what happened in the story! I bet it was great. Better than this for sure." Sarah balanced him on her hip like she had seen Karen do earlier. Toby grabbed Sarah's shirt and held it in his chubby fist as he cried. Sarah rubbed his back, hating the icky feeling of his damp undershirt.

Toby howled harder. Sarah walked him across the room, patting his back now, thinking maybe he had gas. It did no good because his red face just screwed up tighter and he cried harder.

"Knock it off Toby, I fed you, changed and burped you twice."

Sarah sighed because her arms were beginning to get tired and the front of her shirt was wet with snot.

"I wish I was in the Labyrinth. I wish the Goblin King had given me special powers."

Toby burped and then straightened. Sarah prayed that he was beginning to get tired. Looking at her with solemn eyes and a still mouth, Sarah relaxed thinking that this was the end of his tirade and maybe he would go to sleep or at least go back to being quiet.

Not so.

He opened his mouth and inhaled a deep breath of air and screamed in a piercingly high tone. Sarah tried to cover her ear with her remaining hand but it did no good. It was like Toby knew where to direct his scream so that it made right in her ear.

Sarah gave a yell of frustration and pain.

"Oh, I wish the Goblins would come to take you away! Right now!"


	13. Chapter 13

Sarah didn't know what to do. She was at her wits end and she was exhausted.

She had walked Toby around the house for an hour, all the while he had continued screaming in her ear. Sarah tried shifting him away from her but that made holding him more tiring.

Fed up, she placed him in his crib and turned off the lights. Sitting in the rocking chair in the room across from his, Sarah sat and rocked back and forth with a towel over her head to block out the noise.

He cried so long and so hard, Sarah worried that he was going to make himself sick.

_"And then I'll get the blame for it"_ she thought to herself.

When the screaming reached an all time high, Sarah braced herself to go in and get him but then he stopped.

"Thank God" she said aloud. Throwing off the towel, Sarah listened for the hiccuping breathing that meant Toby was tiring down.

She heard nothing.

"Toby?"

Sarah rose from the chair and listened.

"Toby?"

Faintly, Sarah thought she heard rustling.

Sarah walked quickly across the hallway and switched the light on in Toby's room.

It didn't work.

"Damn. Toby? Why aren't you crying?" Peering into the dark room, Sarah could only make the light outline of Toby's crib.

Taking long careful strides, Sarah made it to the crib. "Toby?"

She reached into the crib and grabbed Toby's empty blanket.

"Oh my God! Toby! Where are you?" Sarah's panicked fingers patted the crib mattress, searching for Toby but there was nothing there.

A giggle came from the direction of Toby's changing table. Sarah spun around, still clutching the baby blanket.

"Who's there? Toby?"

_"I cannot be afraid...I have to find him...Oh dear lord who could have taken him? I don't even want to think about it..."_

"Toby?" Sarah said aloud. "Whoever you are, give my brother back right now! Or else, I'm going to call the police. I mean it!"

Something scuttled across the floor and hit the crib. Sarah screamed and dropped the blanket.

It was too dark to make anything out but Sarah swore she could hear other things scuttling about the room as well.

She bit her lip and fought not to cry as something brushed past her jeans.

"Whoever you are, give me back the baby! He is just an innocent baby. You are beyond sick to take him away!"

Sarah waited for an answer but there was none. From somewhere in the closet, Sarah heard a giggle. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up.

Fearing that maybe Toby was crammed somewhere in the closet, Sarah ran towards it and flung the doors open.

"Toby?" She called. Sarah knelt and began digging through the closet.

Nothing!

"Damn". Sarah got up and warily made herself walk to the center of the room.

"Please!" Sarah implored. "Whoever you are, I want my brother back!"

More giggling and shuffling. Sarah held her breath, trying not to scream.

"Whatever you want...if its money I will give it to you."

Just then the French doors of the bedroom and shuddered and flew open. Sarah blinked as shards of glitter flew into her face.

Covering her eyes with her sleeve, Sarah coughed.

The glitter made a ringing sound as it fell to the floor.

Looking up as the air cleared, Sarah saw the Goblin King before her.

Dressed in all black, he stood before in riding boots and leather. Tapping a riding crop against his thigh, he stared at the girl with a frown.

"Sarah, Sarah, Sarah" he tisked.

"Excuse, me?" Sarah croaked. A piece of glitter was stuck in her throat.

"You" the Goblin King began. He stepped across the piles of glitter on the floor, his riding boots making a clicking sound.

"Never. Learn."

With a gloved hand, he stroked Sarah's cheek.

Sarah was too afraid to move.

"What have you done with my brother?" she asked.

"He is in my Labyrinth, precious."

"He is where?"

"For Heaven's sake, and for mine also, I pray that the aboveground has not turned you into a blathering fool, Sarah. You know very well where he is."

Sarah lowered her head and began to cry

"I didn't mean to wish him there!" She sobbed. Jareth rolled his eyes and brushed some imaginary lint of his sleeves.

"Apparently you did mean to. You said the words, for him, and my Goblins came and got him."

"Must I run the Labyrinth?" Sarah sniffed.

"Must you?" Jareth grinned.

_"His teeth look sharp"_.

"What will happen to him?"

"He will become a Goblin...forever."

"No!" Sarah cried. She grabbed Jareth's arm and knelt on the ground.

Jareth looked alarmed.

"What are you doing?"

"Please, let me run the Labyrinth! Please give me the chance to free him!"

"Do you know what you are asking?"

"Yes, yes! I will do anything for him."

"Come here" Jareth grabbed Sarah's arm and led her out out through the French doors. Sarah followed quickly and then gasped.

They were no longer in or anywhere remotely near the outside of her house.

They were in the outskirts of the Labyrinth. Sarah gasped. Never had she seen anything this impressive or this forbidding. It was huge!

"He is there" Jareth told her. "In my castle."

Sarah swallowed hard. "It doesn't look that far."

Jareth smiled. "It's further than you think."

Sarah turned and looked at the Goblin King. "You said that you would turn him into a Goblin forever?"

Jareth nodded.

"If I run the Labyrinth, will you give him back?"

"If you run the Labyrinth...don't you mean, if you succeed?

"Yes" Sarah said, "If I succeed."

"Look at the Labyrinth, Sarah" Jareth gestured to the gates and the expanse of it's sprawling mazes. "Does this look easy to you? Would you say its a piece of cake?" Jareth spat out the last part.

Sarah said nothing.

"You could die" Jareth's cold voice whispered in ear. Sarah jumped. She didn't know that he was that close to her.

"I must have my brother back" Sarah repeated.

"Are you worried about your parents and what they would say when they found out that their only son was wished to the Goblins?" Jareth laughed.

"No need to worry dear, Sarah. The only one to remember what really happened would be _you_. To them it would be like he had never been born."

"I would still know, and it would be terrible to live with that burden" Sarah said. "Please, just give me the chance."

"No" Jareth said.

"What?" Sarah cried.

"No"

"But this is how its suppose to be!" Sarah exclaimed. "You are the Goblin King and this is the way babies are won back."

"I am the Goblin King" Jareth told her, "But I make the rules on how babies are returned."

Sarah began crying again.

"Please..." her shoulders were beginning to shake with sobs. "Give him back, give me the chance to win him back."

"I will give you two options" Jareth said. Sarah stopped crying.

"Thank..."

"Two options" Jareth cut her off. "The first being, instead of running the Labyrinth and failing, you will take his place."

"As a Goblin?"

"No, as my Queen and Consort." Sarah turned white.

"Why can't I just run the Labyrinth?" she asked.

"Because you will fail" Jareth said. " And when you do fail, your little brother will stay a Goblin forever. Are you prepared to gamble with the stakes that high?"

Sarah shivered and said nothing.

"Really, Sarah. I am being very generous."

"Generous..."Sarah muttered.

Sarah looked at the Labyrinth. It was enormous. It could take days for her to get the castle. But the castle was in sight, and the Goblin King had never mentioned any time restrictions.

Eying the wide Doors to the beginning of the maze, Sarah made up her mind.

"I will run it, Goblin King. And when I am finished, you will give me back my brother."

"Sarah, you do not know what you are asking for."

"Its the only way" she said. Jareth's mismatched eyes darkened.

"It is not the only way" he thundered. "Look you foolish little girl, I am offering you your dreams."

Sarah said nothing, hoping against hope that he would look away.

"Sarah, beware" Jareth said.

Sarah began running down the hill.

_"The door! The door!"_ she thought furiously to herself as she ran. She thanked her lucky stars that she had on her tennis shoes instead of the brown loafers that she usually wore.

Breathing hard, Sarah reached the door. Sparing a half second to look behind her, Sarah heard her name being called. The Goblin King stood on the hill watching her.

Giving him a furious glare, Sarah wrenched open the heavy wooden door. Sarah saw that it was pitch black. _"I''l run into one of the stone walls and kill myself" _she thought. _"I have no other choice though, even if I die."_Slipping into the dark depths of the Labyrinth, Sarah prayed for light.


	14. Chapter 14

* Thanks for all the lovely reviews. I don't own the Labyrinth. If I did, there would have been a sequel. Aww thanks aserene. That was a very Labyrinth like wording there. Lol. Appropriate though.

Sarah stumbled in the dark for ten minutes until at last her hands felt a wall.

She shivered.

This was _not_ what she expected.

From far away the Labyrinth looked forbidding but doable. Sarah had been heartened by the fact that she could see the Castle. Dimly, although she knew it was impossible, she even thought she heard Toby crying. Her goal had seemed so close!

Now, when she was actually in the Labyrinth, everything seemed impossible.

Sarah shook her head and continued to follow the wall. Why was it so dark? The book never mentioned any of this!

_"There has to be light somewhere"_ she thought. If she didn't find light soon, Sarah thought that she would go mad. Already her mind was playing tricks on her, making her see moving shadows. Several times Sarah put her hand in front of her, trying to touch the black wisps that moved inside the dark but each time she felt nothing.

_"Oh why was I so stupid to wish a baby away! Deep inside I knew what was possible. Deep inside I knew this would happen!"_

The inch by inch discovery of this place was maddening. Several times, Sarah had to crawl on her hands and knees when she felt a corner. Several times she was on her hands and knees anyways because she fell.

Exhausted and afraid of getting an injury from the walls, Sarah carefully felt the wall for spiders . Deciding there were none in the near vicinity, she sat down and leaned against the wall.

_"This is impossible. I can never make it through the dark. This is so unfair!"_

Sarah's head ached and she wondered when was the last time she had eaten. It must have been hours before she had given Toby his first bottle.

_"I'll never make it through. I''ll never eat another peanut butter sandwich again."_

From the far end of the wall, Sarah heard a noise. She pulled her legs closer to her and listened hard.

"Hello?" she called out. A gust of wind blew into her face and Sarah could hear pieces of rocks moving on the ground. Sarah got up.

"Hello?" she asked again. "Is somebody there?"

Knowing that what she did was stupid, Sarah moved towards the noise. The noise increased. Sarah's tennis shoes inched forward.

"Hello? Is anybody there? If someone is there, could you please help me? I am looking for the way to the Castle."

Sarah heard burbling. It sounded like a language. If only she could be sure it was English! No use in getting near something that was possibly dangerous if she couldn't even understand it.

"Hello?" Sarah felt her voice getting hollow. _"Dear Lord, I hope that's not a hole that I'm walking towards."_

Sarah walked as far as she thought was safe and then with her sneaker, she scrapped the ground, shoving dirt and gravel towards the hole.

Not hearing anything she walked a little further.

"Hello? Is anybody there?"

Deciding already that she was a complete idiot and her day couldn't possibly get any worse,

Sarah knelt and then continued to crawl towards the hole. She blindly clutched at the ground in front of her, hoping to avoid falling headfirst into whatever it was the noise was coming from.

"Hello?" Sarah called again.

Taking a deep breath, Sarah craned her neck further. She thought she heard a whisper of language coming from the ground.

"Hello? Please, I'm looking for the..." Sarah shrieked as someone came up from behind her and pushed her forward. Sarah tried to land with her palms faced flat on the ground but something changed. The ground or the hole had moved closer and now Sarah was falling in it.

"Help!" She managed to get out as she felt the speed of her descent increase.

Suddenly Sarah felt something grab hold of her. The breath went out of her. Whatever was holding onto her was strong!

_"I can't breath"_ she thought frantically.

She tried twisting back and forth in an effort to loosen herself from the grip of whatever was holding her.

"Help me! Somebody please!"

"We ARE helping you" a choir of voices cried.

"You are hurting me!" Sarah yelled.

"Do you want us to let you go?" the voiced jeered. Without waiting for an answer, Sarah was released and she continued her fall downward.

"Help!" Sarah screamed.

Again, Sarah was caught. She winced and cried out as what felt like several hands crawled all over her body.

"Stop!"

A hand that felt like marble slapped Sarah hard in the face.

"Let me go down! I don't care. I just want to go down!" Sarah cried.

"She said down!" a voice croaked.

"She said down" another roared.

"Let me the fuck down!" Sarah shouted.

Sarah fell downward.

And it was not a graceful free for all swan dive.

Sarah tried to catch herself on some stray rocks and protruding walls, but it was a futile attempt. Instead the sharp edges caught at her, tearing through jeans and skin.

At last Sarah reached the ground.

She fell with a loud thump onto a dirt covered ground. Luckily, she had delayed her fall by clutching at the shoulder of a large boulder. It didn't stop her, but it slowed her down some.

Groaning Sarah slowly raised herself up. A searing pain shot through her shoulder making her cry out with each movement. Gritting her teeth, Sarah stood up.

Sarah guessed that she had dislocated it when she fell.

Cradling her arm, Sarah shuffled forward, blinking in the sudden light.

Focusing her eyes, Sarah looked around her.

_"I'm in an oubliette, or something really close to it"_

She was in some kind of cave. There were lighted torches on sconces in the walls. Wherever, she was, it appeared to be empty, making Sarah alone.

_"How am I suppose to get to the castle with my shoulder like this?"_

The pain was intensifying with each second. Sarah carefully lowered herself to the ground. She couldn't go on.

Staring at the dirt floor, Sarah dimly realized that it sparkled. At least the place that she came to die in was vaguely pretty, she reflected before she went on to ponder her failure to get Toby back home.

Just as she was about to cry Sarah thought she heard a sound. Sniffling quickly, Sarah glanced around the room.

There was an opening!

"_That wasn't here before" _she thought.

Sarah saw the torches sputter and flicker as the echo of footfalls approached her. Sarah bit her lip and tried to think of what to do.

Without a doubt she was out of options.

Sarah looked in the direction of the footsteps.

**Click, Click Click**

Sarah waited listlessly to meet her fate.

It was Jareth.

"Are you a complete and utter idiot?" he snarled, striding forward. He leaned down and snatched a chunk of Sarah's hair and pulled.

"Do you think this is a game?"

Sarah whimpered and tried to pull away.

"Well, DO YOU?"

"No..I..."

"What happened to your arm?" Jareth let go of Sarah's hair and stepped back. His already pale face was pallid with anger. Sarah was reminded of the marble hand. Inwardly she shivered.

"I think it's dislocated" she offered softly. Jareth's eye's hardened.

"I should let you rot in here for your disobedience!"

"But you said I had options!" Sarah cried before stopping to clutch in her arm in agony.

"You _are_ a fool" Jareth said. Breathing hard for a moment, he willed his hand to his side. Sarah's eye's followed his movements.

"Come" he said.

"I can't " Sarah whimpered. "My arm and shoulder. I can't walk."

Jareth walked forward and in a swift motion lifted Sarah into his arms. Sarah's eyes welled up with tears. The pain was worsened by the movement.

"Can you hold on?" He asked her. She shook her head.

"Don't fall" he told her.


	15. Chapter 15

*I feel like no one is reading my story. Review please and tell me how you like it! I will even take some flamers. P.S I had my shoulder dislocated and when they popped it back in, I fainted. It took a team of residents to hold me down. I am not a sissy pansy by any means, but still the pain was overwhelming. Thus, what Sarah does should be believable. I even vomited after I woke up. The pain was that intense.

Sarah closed her eyes as she felt a jolt. Jareth had transferred them by magic to a courtyard. Sarah tried very hard to breathe.

"_Breath through the pain. Just breathe"_

Jareth looked down at her, his face impassive.

"You brought this on yourself" he told her.

"You said I could run the Labyrinth!" Sarah snapped.

Jareth shifted Sarah's weight in his arms as he climbed up some short steps.

"I am going to need to summon a healer" he told her. "If your shoulder is dislocated, they will need to push it back in".

Sarah nodded grimly. She wouldn't care if he summoned Satan himself. If he could stop the pain, Sarah would have gladly kissed him.

"You will be comfortable and safe here."

"What..." Sarah began and then stopped.

_"What is this place?"_

"We are in one of my outside pavilions, in the castle garden. Forgive me, but I wasn't expecting you so soon. I would have had your room prepared."

"So soon?" Sarah murmured. Jareth ignored her. He carried Sarah into the middle of the tent like enclosure. The walls of the place where made of a thin muslin material that fluttered gently whenever the wind blew.

In the middle of the room stood a long couch. Gently, Jareth lowered Sarah onto it. She made a hissing noise of pain.

"I will return as soon as I can. Do. Not. Move."

Sarah glared at him weakly.

_"Just where I am suppose to go?"_

Just as Jareth turned his back to her, Sarah remembered Toby.

"Where is my brother?"

"He is where he is. Do not move."

Sarah opened her mouth to ask him more, but he was gone.

Deciding there was nothing that she could do in her present state, Sarah laid back and waited for him to return.

Alone, injured and friendless in a foreign place, Sarah had no choice but to put her trust into the man that had stolen Toby.

She had no choice.

Before Sarah could drift off more deeply in her pain hazed sleep, she heard voices and knew that Jareth had returned.

"Someone is going to have to hold her still, your Majesty."

"I will" Jareth's voice answered.

"She may kick or bite" the voice said.

"She may try." Jareth said.

Sarah opened her eyes and blinked as she saw Jareth advancing towards her. Instinctively, she tried to rise, but Jareth placed an arm on her middle and the other arm he placed on her unhurt shoulder.

"I will try to be quick" a wizened old man said. "If you hear a pop, that's a good thing." He began rolling up his sleeves and flexing his hands.

Sarah's eyes widened in terror.

"What...?" Sarah said. Her heart raced in fear. She tried to resist Jareth's hold on her body. Twice in one day, someone had held her in a death grip.

"Sarah, relax" Jareth told her. "It will go much easier if you don't struggle."

Sarah knew that Jareth was right, but still she struggled. She couldn't help it. She knew what they were doing had to be done. Still, she didn't even know this man...fae person, whatever and he was telling her in essence to trust him! After he had taken her brother!

Sarah made a squealing noise as she felt the healer touch her.

"Your majesty, the girl needs to be still, or else I might injure her more."

"Sarah, look at me" Jareth commanded.

Tears streamed from the corner of Sarah's eyes.

"I don't even know you" she whispered.

Breathing hard and sniffling, Sarah moved her head and looked at the Goblin King. Both of his eyes had bled to true black. Sarah found no comfort in their depths. They offered no reflection.

Suddenly Sarah screamed and arched her back. It took all her strength to defy Jareth's hold on her, but she did it for a short while. Jareth tightened his grip on her while the healer pushed at Sarah's shoulder harder.

Sarah's eyes rolled in the back in her head and she fainted.

"It is done" the healer told Jareth. "She's a strong girl, isn't she?"

"Yes, she is" Jareth said in a displeased tone.

"She will come out of her stupor in a short while. You may administer the pain remedy then."

When Sarah awoke, she saw the fluttering drapes and knew that she was still in the pavilion and thus still in the Labyrinth.

Feeling her world falling down around her, Sarah quickly leaned to her side and vomited.

"Are you in pain?"

Sarah coughed weakly and sat up. Jareth was sitting in a chair across from the couch. In his hands, he was twirling a crystal.

"Yes"Sarah said.

Jareth sighed and got up. Sarah flinched as he approached her. He frowned.

"I am not going to hurt you" he said.

Sarah said nothing.

"I am going to take away your pain" he told her.

"How?" Sarah asked.

"With this" he said, showing her the crystal.

"What is it?" Sarah asked.

Jareth raised a brow.

"Later. Now is not the time for questions. Do you want to be out of your pain?"

"Do you mean I am going to die?" Sarah asked fearfully. Jareth cursed under his breath.

"No. Now be quiet."

Sarah obeyed, thinking that if he could alleviate her pain, she had a better chance of finding Toby and getting the hell out of here.

Jareth brought the crystal and gently pressed it into her hurt shoulder where it dissolved into her skin like a soap bubble.

Sarah felt a cooling sensation and the sharp ache in her shoulder dulled.

Sarah was surprised that it hadn't hurt or even killed her.

"Thank you" she managed.

"The night is approaching" Jareth said. "You cannot stay outside the castle. Come."

Sarah hesitated but then decided maybe she would find Toby inside the castle. Pushing herself off the couch, she stood up and almost fell over.

Jareth watched her with his black eyes.

Sarah looked at him apologetically.

"I can't walk right now" she said. "If you give me some time maybe..."

Jareth walked over swiftly and carefully lifted her in his arms. Sarah was extremely grateful for what Jareth done for her arm. She felt only a twinge when he had lifted her.

"Alright?" Jareth asked. Sarah nodded.

_"The Goblin King is carrying me in his arms. After I vomited in his pavilion no less."_

Sarah noted that Jareth moved easily with her in his arms. Sarah was not heavy, but she was not feather light. She never guessed he had such strength in his lean frame. Sarah bore the marks of his strength on her shoulder and stomach.

"My brother? Is he in the castle?" Sarah asked. Jareth frowned.

"Yes. And that's all you need to know."

"Will I have another chance? To run the Labyrinth?"

"No. Now shut up."


	16. Chapter 16

*I love you guys.

Sarah was hardly jostled in Jareth's arms, but even so, she still felt some movement as he walked with her. It sent an aching pain to her shoulder. The dull echo of pain made her want to cry.

_"Whatever he gave me, it wasn't very strong."_

Deciding that she already made a fool enough of herself, she made no noise and gave no comment. Instead she looked at the castle.

They had passed several empty rooms and once Sarah saw a place where there appeared to be several stair cases. Even in her pained state, Sarah found the room strangely fascinating.

The castle was not run down. However, it seemed weary and dark, although to be fair, it was not as dark as the Labyrinth had been.

They encountered no one. Sarah thought that the place would be brimming with Goblins.

As they walked through each darkened corridor, Sarah noticed that torches lit as they passed. Briefly, She was reminded of the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast".

_"I wonder if Belle had felt this uncomfortable."_

Aching slightly from her shoulder and the distinct chill in the castle, Sarah hoped that wherever Toby was, that he was at least warm. Although from her experience, Sarah felt that Jareth was unkind, she hoped that he had some consideration for a baby.

After all, it wasn't Toby's fault that he was here.

It was hers.

At last they rounded a corner and came to a silver door. Jareth didn't have to put Sarah down in order to grasp the knob, instead it opened.

The room was dark and only a small banked fire gave the room any light.

It was a simple room. There was a chair and rug on the floor next to the fireplace. A canopied bed with dark green drapes took up most of the room.

Jareth set Sarah down and she stood before him with a blank expression.

"This is your room" he said.

"My room?"

"For now of course" Jareth told her with an imperious wave of his hand. "I told you before that I was not aware of your coming. Had I known what the situation would be, I would have had things prepared. This will have to do for tonight."

"Forgive me" Sarah began "But you must understand how difficult this is for me. I just want my brother back. I want to go home."

"Sarah, it is late and you are trying my patience. I warned you, I can be cruel."

"Where is he?" Sarah cried, sniffling now.

"Where is who?" Jareth asked in a bored tone. He had already seated himself in the only chair and was looking at Sarah with ill concealed irritation.

"My brother! Toby!"

Jareth leaned back in the chair and took out a nail file. Inspecting each hand for flaws, he finally choose one finger and began to file, ignoring the distraught girl standing next to him.

Dropping to her knees, Sarah touched one of Jareth's boots.

"Please, tell me where Toby is!"

Jareth sighed, and without looking up from his nails, he said "He is there"

"Where?" Sarah asked looking around.

"There" Jareth said.

Sarah heard a mewing sound, and she looked in the corner beside the bed. There, adjacent to the bed, sat a wooden cradle. Rushing over to it, Sarah leaned down and picked up Toby.

"You will injure your shoulder more carrying around that child" Jareth told her.

"Can we go home now?"

"No."

Toby began to whimper and Sarah hugged him to her.

"What?"

"You failed to complete the Labyrinth, therefore your baby brother becomes one of us...forever. Really, Sarah, you must try harder to keep up. I explained all of this earlier."

"But..." Sarah stammered, clutching Toby, "You can't."

For the first time in a long time, Jareth smiled.

"You will find that I can." Tossing aside the nail file, he stood up and walked over to Sarah.

"In fact, the word is, I _will._" Deftly, he tore the baby from Sarah's arms. Surprisingly, Toby didn't cry.

"Wait. Give me another chance to run the Labyrinth!" Sarah begged.

"What's said is said, Sarah, and further more, what is done is done. _You_ failed. End of story."

"There has to be another way!" Sarah wailed.

Jareth smiled and bounced Toby in his arms. The baby smiled and gurgled, oblivious to Sarah's distress.

"He is going to make such a cute Goblin. Aren't you, little chap?" Jareth swung the baby back and forth in his arms. Sarah thought that she was going to be ill again.

"There really is no other way?" She pleaded in a tear strained voice.

"Let me think...no" Jareth said. He turned his back to Sarah, still swinging the baby in his arms. On his face, there was a smile of mischief and victory.

"Please" Sarah managed to gasp before she broke down and fell on the ground in a sobbing heap.

Jareth walked Toby back to his cradle and placed him in it.

Carefully, he knelt next to Sarah and grabbed her tear stained face. Faintly, Sarah felt the tips of his nails scrape her face.

"Forget about the baby" he told her.

"I can't" Sarah sobbed.

"You failed the Labyrinth" he reminded her.

"I know, but please, don't turn my brother into a Goblin. There has to be some other way!" She hiccuped. "I will do anything."

Jareth grasped her chin and jerked it up so that her eyes met his.

"Anything?" he asked.

"Yes!"

"The Labyrinth demands a body in return for failure" he said.

"I will die?" she trembled.

"No. You will take your brother's place. As my Queen. You must promise to fear me, love me, and do as I say."

"Love ...you?" Sarah asked.

"Essentially it boils down to letting me rule you" Jareth grinned. "Come now Precious, _I _do have eternity, but your baby brother doesn't. Tick tick, tick, tock. Now what's it going to be?"

"I will stay" Sarah promised, "In Toby's place."

Jareth got up and brushed off his hands, "Alright, that settles it."

"Wait!" Sarah yelled.

"What is it?" Jareth snarled. He was just about to return the little brat to the aboveground.

"Let me say goodbye, please" Sarah begged. She sniffled once more. "I will probably never see him again."

"Oh very well, but be quick. I had to re-order time for you."

Sarah got up, wincing at the pain in her arm. Shuffling over to the wooden cradle, Sarah leaned down and looked at Toby.

"I'm sorry for wishing you away" she whispered. With her hand, she smoothed down his baby hair. Although in her life aboveground, Sarah had never been this affectionate, she knew that this might be the last time she saw anyone or anything human again.

Gently and briefly, she kissed his forehead. Then, with great difficulty, she moved away from the cradle. Trying to retain a shard of dignity, she willed herself to stay still and to not beg the Goblin King to send her home with Toby.

"Goodbye, Toby" Sarah said sorrowfully. She wrung her hands in anticipation of what the Goblin would do.

"Yes,Goodbye forever" Jareth said gleefully.

With a flick of his wrist the cradle shook and then disappeared in a cloud of glitter.


	17. Chapter 17

*Okay people unless I get really bored and have nothing to do at work (might happen) my updates might be less frequent. Plus I am running out of ideas, and money. Back to transcribing mindless meetings. It could be worse, I could be back working in the Deli. *Shudder. I am not putting anyone down that works with food. Not at all. I salute everyone of you. The hardest work that I ever did in my short life was behind that counter. I should thank my stars that I have the job that I have. I need a bottle of wine and a David Bowie CD. To be honest though, I might be up at strange hours of the night, typing away, trying to forget my LSAT woes. *sigh. Okay. On with the story. Oh before I forget, Jareth is not a bunny and I do not own the Labyrinth.

Sarah stood still, staring at the spot where Toby's cradle had been. She was still trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened. Everything, the dream, the trip to the Labyrinth, Toby missing, seemed unreal and downright impossible.

Sarah knew in her heart though, that everything that had come to pass was indeed true and she was not dreaming any of this. Her life as knew it, was gone forever.

What a pity.

"You should try and get some sleep Precious" Jareth told her. Sarah looked glumly at the bed.

"You won't" she began and then looked away, blushing.

"Molest you? Tear your tender innocence away from you? No, silly child." Jareth laughed and drew closer to Sarah. Chucking her under the chin, he grinned at her.

"I want a Goblin Queen, Sarah, not a Goblin Concubine."

"What's the difference" Sarah muttered. She was tired and her arm ached, but her spirit returned a little with the thought of getting away from Jareth, at least in her dreams.

"None of your cheek now, Sarah. I've been very generous to you today."

Sarah stared at him mutely, afraid to counter. She still could not believe that he wanted her to be his Queen. For sure she thought that she would become a Goblin. It seemed that she had something to be grateful for after all.

"Let's see" Jareth said as he looked Sarah over. Snapping his fingers, Sarah suddenly felt a strange sensation all over her body.

Looking down, she saw that her clothes were gone and in their place was a white nightgown with long sleeves and a hem that touched her ankles.

"Much better" Jareth said.

Sarah fought not to rub her arms in agitation.

"Come" Jareth said, offering her his hand. Sarah stared at it and then took it. She was desperate for sleep and the chance to dream this day away.

Jareth took Sarah's hand and gently led her to him. In a calculated movement, he swept her off her feet and into his arms.

Sarah gasped and became frightened.

Jareth looked down at her.

"I won't harm you" he said.

Walking with her once again in his arms, he reached the bed and placed her on top of the covers. Sarah immediately rolled to her side, off her injured shoulder, and curled up in a ball.

Closing her eyes, she felt the bed give as Jareth moved in beside her.

She shivered when she felt his hand, cold as ice move over her injured shoulder.

"Does it still pain you?"

Sarah didn't answer.

Jareth sighed. "I can't help you if you don't tell me if it hurts."

"Send me back" Sarah whispered. Jareth was silent for a moment.

"I cannot do that"he said. "You promised."

"I know" Sarah said and then she began to cry.

"Shh..." Jareth crooned. Conjuring up another crystal, he placed on top of Sarah's shoulder.

She stopped crying as she concentrated on the cool sensation that bubbled from the crystal. Seeping into her skin, her body became numb and Sarah felt herself drifting away.

"Sleep, my Precious Sarah. Sleep".

Sarah didn't dream as she slept. She thought in her mind that she would, and each time that she thought she would see images and colors, perhaps the setting of a different world, nothing happened.

Instead she just slept.

In her dreamless sleep, she did not feel the ache in her shoulder. She did not feel any pain. She did feel however the coldness of the Goblin King's arm clasping her to him as she slept.

It was an unnerving sensation, but Sarah rested none the less.

Jareth, on the other hand did not sleep.

He could not contain his excitement that he had her in his arms at last. Nineteen years he had waited for her. Nineteen long years of waiting and plotting, and now the wait was over.

To be sure, she still wasn't mentally mature. Mortals had these strange notions about fairness and happy endings and sunshine.

Utter rot.

Plus, books and fairy tales about the Fae in the human realm encouraged the thinking that humans and Fae were not that different. Imagine that! Fairy beings were suppose to grant wishes and lost Princesses were suppose to be treated with fairness and respect. Everyone went home happy.

These were dangerous expectations. Not to mention idiotic.

Sarah had a lot to learn.

She wasn't in her world anymore. She was in his.

The nature of the Fae was often cruel but above all possessive. Sarah may have seen today that Jareth could be cruel, but she was just beginning to learn the extent of his possessive, especially where she was concerned. A being like a Fae can't live for eternity without growing possessive of his objects or lovers. Jareth was no different from the rest of his kind. He had hundreds of years behind him to perfect his Fae nature.

Jareth smiled wistfully and stroked Sarah's face with a chilled fingertip. She didn't move. Sleeping, she looked like a Fairy princess. The image delighted Jareth, who had already began thinking of ways to change the status of Sarah's mortality.

For a moment, Jareth wished that she would awaken and stare at him with her emerald eyes. Jareth remembered Sarah in her previous lifetime and how she looked at him with that earnest heartbreaking love in her eyes. Such a sad love.

Jareth's Fae nature longed for that adoration. It bothered him to no that Sarah found him cruel and shied away from him. In the years that she had been in the aboveground, many Fae courtiers and ladies had propositioned him in his better moods. He had turned them away with mocking smiles and hard words, dreaming of the day that his Sarah would return to the Labyrinth. Now that she had though, it was disappointing to say the least that she seemed to hate him so.

Inwardly, he shrugged. Soon, she would overcome her fear of him and things would be like before, but even better.

She had promised after all, to love him and obey him.

Jareth continued to stroke her face, humming contentedly.

"Love me, Love me,Love me, Love me say you do...Let me fly away with you" he sang to her.

"For my love is like the wind, and Wild is the wind, Wild is the wind."

Although she wasn't dreaming, Sarah heard a voice. It was singing. From the deep recesses of her mind, Sarah knew that it was the Goblin King that was singing. Her mind told her to remain sleeping but her body wouldn't obey.

Her eyes fluttered open. "Where am I?" she whispered.

"With me" Jareth said. He had risen up on his arms and his face loomed over hers. His haughty eyes and aristocratic nose gave rise to an intense expression that Sarah struggled to discern.

Before Sarah could get out another word, he leaned down and kissed her.

Sarah gasped and accidentally opened her mouth. An icy tongue invaded her mouth and caressed her. Breathing hard she broke away and tried scooting upwards but Jareth stopped her by pressing his palm against her neck, pinning her down like a cat would pin down a mouse.

"No, no, no" he admonished her. "You promised to let me rule you and do as I say." Sarah's eyes widened in fear and surprise.

"But you said you wouldn't..." she stammered, trying to find the words for sex.

"No" Jareth smiled, trailing an icy cold finger down her neck and over to her injured shoulder. Sarah winced in anticipation.

"I won't bed you tonight. Merely a kiss, Sarah. Nothing more."

"Those words" Sarah said angrily. Jareth looked at her questioningly. With his free hand, he played with the collar of her nightgown.

Sarah tried to push his hands away, an automatic gesture that raised Jareth's eyebrows in a frown.

Sarah stopped.

"You will not reject, me Sarah" Jareth's warned. "I can be kind, but also cruel. You have promised to spend eternity with me sweetheart. It's best that you don't make it hard on yourself."

Sarah frowned and said nothing. Jareth sighed angrily and pushed her from him.

"Sarah, beware, I have been generous..."

"Generous?" Sarah asked. "What have done that's generous? You took my brother away and forced me to take his place, you..."

"You asked that the child be taken, I took him!" Jareth thundered. The corners of his Fae eyes drew back in a scowl. "I have re-ordered time for you, I have turned the world upside down and I have done it all for you!"

"How? How is this so?" Sarah asked. She really meant to ask was "Why me?" but she didn't know how.

"It doesn't matter how" Jareth said "Or why" he added. "You made a promise, and we are in my world now little girl. Your promise is a contract that you must keep and so help me..."

Jareth's tirade was interrupted by a furious knocking on the door.

Jareth glared at Sarah and then walked to the door, prepared to boot any Goblin who dared intrude upon his time after dark.

A small green Goblin cowered before Jareth, too frightened to speak. Jareth's nostrils widened and his eyes blazed.

"Well?" he snarled.

"Sire..." the thing shook as it tried to form words.

"Out with it! Before I throw you into the bog of stench" Jareth yelled.

"In the Labyrinth, Sire. Come quickly."

"It's the Fire Devils."

Jareth's boot's made the gravel in the Labyrinth path crunch as he walked with his fearsome beasts flanked at each side.

It was dark in the Labyrinth, both from the night and from the fear that seemed to ride on the wind. Torches and smile fires were lit, but it seemed that darkness reigned supreme.

As he passed his subjects, the Goblins cowered and trembled in fear. Gone was the wild, erratic behavior that was common to them. They did not run about madly, causing havoc and chaos. Instead they stood still in fear, watching their Sovereign. Somberness ruled the air.

Jareth reached his captain of the guard, who instantly dropped to his knees and groveled on the ground before the Goblin King.

"Tell me how you failed" Jareth snarled.

The captain, not a Goblin, but a Fae soldier, shook his head.

"They must have masked their scent, Sire."

"What did they do?" Jareth asked. The captain rose and pointed.

There, caught on one of the Labyrinth's many hedges of shrubbery, was the flayed body of a Fiery.

Jareth walked over to the hedge and without taking off his gloves, he touched the burnt skin. Rubbing it between his fingers, it turned to dust and crumbled immediately.

Jareth could smell the pungent scent of sulpher.

"Bury the body" he told his captain, "Or maybe not" he added, thinking of the state of the body. It was just a husk ready to fall apart.

"Just get rid of it" he finally said.

"What does this mean?" the Captain asked "They have not attacked the Labyrinth in years. Why should they now?"

"It is not your duty to question their motives" Jareth told him coldly. "It is mine. Now shut your mouth or I will shut it for you, forever."

The captain shut his mouth. Jareth turned on his heel and turned to face the rest of his guard.

"You, and you four" he beckoned. Bowing quickly, the soldiers scrambled to arrange themselves in front of the Goblin King.

"Have the trenches been built?" He asked. They all nodded their heads.

"And filled with water?" Another group assent.

"Then **HOW IN THE DEVIL'S NAME DID THEY GET IN?"**

Silence reigned in the Labyrinth as his soldiers and Goblin subjects stood before him. Jareth conjured a riding crop and grasping it in his hand, he strode forward and struck one of the Fae Soldiers hard. A thin trickle of blood oozed down onto the ground.

Quickly and efficiently, Jareth struck each of the soldiers before him.

"Worthless Fools" he said. One of his beasts growled.

"Even a dumb animal is better than you." Turning around to ensure that each of his subjects saw his face, he continued, "Fail me again, and you will be wishing I had thrown you in the bog of stench."

Jareth's Captain of the guard came and knelt before him, "My Lord?" he said.

Curling his lip, Jareth shook his head impatiently, "No sleep tonight" he told him. "Send a messenger to the Lady Gen, telling her I demand an audience with her in the morning."


	18. Chapter 18

* It's back to the drawing board on the LSAT. But in the meantime, I have the Labyrinth and my new story called "Kiss Me Goodnight"( SS/HG Romance Angst). It's going to be good and hot. I will still try to salvage my other story, "Don't Turn Around..." It was written while I was younger and the immaturity shows. LOL. I recently reviewed this one story in which the author wrote a RL/HG and I am afraid I was too critical. I might be getting some flames in return, but I hate it when people write strong figures out of character. I want anyone to kill me if I wrote Jareth saying "Gosh" and "Nope".

What had happened in the Labyrinth distressed Jareth, but it did not surprise him.

Already he knew it was the Council.

And already he knew that they guessed that Sarah was here. Everyone in the Underground (Except Sarah) understood Jareth's regard for the mortal girl. It was simply a matter of time before she came back to the Labyrinth as Queen of the Goblins.

He did not stop to think how they knew. Probably a spy no doubt. He did not stop to ponder the details of their deviousness. It was pointless. Why waste time pondering the thoughts of fools? Really, they were so predictable! Jareth had counted on this timely maneuver of enticement and baiting. It was unfortunate though that the innocent Fiery died as a result of this, but it was to be expected. They were the distant cousins of the Fire Devils but because they lived in Jareth's Labyrinth, they had long since been branded as traitors to their own kind.

Because of this, Jareth tolerated their presence in his kingdom, but he forbade them to dismember people and also to restrict their practice of tearing off heads from bodies (dead or alive) to just themselves.

The Fire Devils did more than tear off heads. Jareth remembered a tale from the Unseelie Court about the Fire Devils and the long war that they had with Fae a hundred years ago. A friend of Jareth's father had been partaking generously of wine and in his stupor, had re-counted the last war that the Unseelie Court had with the Fire Devils before the Council found ways to keep them at bay in their own lands.

With glassy eyes, the Fae Lord had described how the Fire Devils had dismembered the fallen, even going as far as cutting out eyes and tongues but most horrible, castrating their victims while they were still alive. Those that had survived the castration went home and later killed themselves in shame. The Fae culture, a race that possessed marvelous longevity and long noble lineages of Lords and Kings, demanded procreation.

While the Fae Lord shed some tears at the fate of the dismembered and castrated Fae, Jareth's father had taken him aside and told him that this was what happened when inferior beings got the upper hand. They wrecked havoc at the very foundations of a powerful people.

Time, he said, told all. Everything is eventual, _if_ you let your enemies get the upper hand.

From now on the clock was ticking, and Jareth was a Fae who respected time immensely. Therefore, he understood the necessity of waiting for the first skirmish, an assurity of their intentions and their plans. It was only a matter of time really before they stooped to attack his Labyrinth. Not wishing to draw their whereabouts to Jareth's attention earlier, they pushed their minions (The Fire Devils) to enter the Labyrinth and send a message. A predictable one.

They were back.

However, so was Jareth. Like a spider, he had patiently waited these nineteen years, spinning his web of revenge. Never idle in either action or thought, Jareth plotted out his war. He began to stockpile his weapons and he began to gather friendships in dangerous places and with dangerous creatures. Previous experience told him that his mindless Goblins were not enough. Fire needed to met with Fire.

In his mind, Jareth was delighted at the chance of revenge. At last the drawn out torture could commence. At last they would pay in blood and tears for what they did to Sarah.

It was going to be quite gruesome. Killing morons was always such fun. Like shooting ducks in a barrel, instant gratification was sweet indeed!

Humming under his breath, Jareth transported himself back to the bedchamber where Sarah lay sleeping.

Slipping into the room, Jareth found satisfaction in the thought of sleeping next to Sarah and perhaps partaking again in her sweet kisses. He smiled and then frowned.

Surprise.

Sarah was not there. The bed was empty and she was nowhere in sight. Jareth cursed himself mentally for not barring the door. He didn't think that Sarah had it in her to try to get away tonight. Clenching his fists, Jareth's nostrils widened and his face drew back in a grimace of anger.

"How you do try my patience, Precious."

He shook his head and willed the white rage that bubbled up inside him to calm. He would not lose his control over a teenage girl! It was not to be born.

"Damn you, Sarah" he cursed. Conjuring up his riding crop, he broke it over a bended knee and threw the pieces at the wall.

She would learn her place, and know his.

Sarah...

After Jareth had left the chamber in a rage, Sarah had tentatively climbed out of bed. Listening at the door for several minutes, she took a deep breath and decided that it was now or never.

She was going to try and escape.

But what did escape mean?

In her nineteen year old mind, Sarah did not know. Taking a quick peek outside the window of the chamber, Sarah wanted to collapse on the stone floor in despair. Everything looked so far away! She could barely make out the entrance to the maze in the dark.

She thought that she saw brief flickering fires and for a moment she was hopeful, but after some thought she decided that's where the Goblin King was headed.

Damn him!

With the Goblin King, and possibly all his subjects diverted at the spot of the small fires, Sarah thought that she stood a chance in making her way back to the beginning in the dark.

"Then what?" Sarah said aloud. Shaking her head, it didn't matter. It was a futile and foolhardy chance, but Sarah reasoned to herself that she had no other choice. All that she knew was that she had to try to get away. The promise that she made to the Goblin King, to love, obey and let him rule her, made Sarah shiver.

She had promised him her soul. Though never specifically mentioned, Sarah understood what it meant to stay in the Labyrinth as Jareth's Queen.

Even a mortal such as Sarah understood the seriousness of such a promise. None of the story books that she had read as a child had prepared her for her foray into the Labyrinth, but Sarah understood the consequences of promises. Everything that she had been told about the Fae had been wrong. Now, promising herself to one like Jareth...well.

She was sure that she couldn't live up to such a promise or to an eternity with him, to say the least. The very thought of bedding him terrified her! Though he said he would not rape her, Sarah did not put it past him to not try. His patience, obviously, had limits.

She hoped that Jareth held up the end of his promise though, especially once he discovered that she was gone. Toby was safe in the Aboveground and Sarah doubted that the Goblin King would bring him back again.

She hated the thought of navigating the Labyrinth in the dark nonetheless. Earlier, she had at least Toby's cries to give her a sense of direction.

Now she had none.

Slipping out the sliver door, Sarah ran down the darkened hallway in her bare feet. Her white nightgown billowed out behind her.

It was cold in the castle, but Sarah soon warmed herself by running. The hallway seemed endless though and she soon ran out of breath.

Thanking her lucky stars that she had not run into a wall in the semi-dark, Sarah glanced around her, trying to figure out just how far she had gotten from the silver door room. Looking out the nearest window, Sarah could see the Garden and beyond that, the hedged maze.

Sarah rubbed her sore feet, cold and aching from the hard stone. Wishing she had shoes but knowing she had none, she went on. Thoughts of the Goblin King pursuing her made her run like a wild deer. Through and through corridors and darkened hallways, she ran until she caught sight of the stairs.

Grasping her gown, she ran down the stairs, feeling the downward jolt twinge her injured shoulder. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she went on until she reached the bottom.

She almost slipped and fell on the stone floor when the sight of the Escher Room made her double track.

"Oh my!" she whispered. It was so beautiful. Staircase upon staircase built it's own labyrinth inside the castle. Sarah's mouth quirked as she almost smiled at the irony of it all. Imagine, after beating the Labyrinth and reaching the Goblin City and it's Castle, only to have to face another Labyrinth!

"This place is not fair" Sarah told herself.

She was tempted to enter the Escher room. The stone stairways glittered like the walls of the Labyrinth and the Oubliette had, however Sarah reasoned to herself that this was one less Labyrinth that she to get lost in. Better take her chances outside the castle.

Sarah looked around for a place that would lead to the kitchens. Kitchens always had doors leading outside to get rid of trash and to escape from fire. Even if they did lead out to the palace Gardens, Sarah knew she had a fair start from there.

Silence was in the hallway as Sarah scurried away in the dark. She tried each closed door, some with no luck, and some with just the luck of an empty chamber or closet. At last she came to the Throne room.

The floor was littered with various bones and chicken feather. In the corner a small fountain ran with what to Sarah smelled like wine.

_"How Decadent, Jareth"_ Sarah smirked. Clean of all the litter and feathers however, was Jareth's throne. Sarah was tempted to go push it over but the voice of reason stopped her, telling her she must go on and not waste time on childish pursuits of revenge.

After all, it was childish thoughts and childish revenge against Toby that got her stuck in this place. She needed to grow up if she was going to make it out of her alive.

Coming to a tin door, Sarah pushed it open and it gave a loud shudder. Sarah held her breath but then went on through its arched door way.

It was the Kitchen!

Itching to run through and search for a back door, Sarah held herself back at the last minute. Looking from side to side, and up and down, Sarah admonished herself for acting like a cartoon character. Still! She could not help but think that things were not always what they seemed here.

Bracing herself for flying knives and talking china, Sarah walked quickly across the kitchen, stopping to note that it was just a kitchen, a bit antiquated perhaps, but just a kitchen.

No talking china.

Some things were what they seemed.

Sarah sighed out loud in relief and then noticed how parched her throat was. It had been hours since she had last eaten or drank anything. She quickly found the sink, or rather an old fashioned water pump. She saw no glasses at hand but it was no problem. Grasping the pump handle, she brought it down and them back up. Water gushed out and Sarah quickly cupped her hands together, drinking the water. It was sparkling and cool. Sarah had never seen prettier water.

She wiped her mouth and wanted more, but there was no time. With one last longing look at the pump, she left the kitchen and went out through a door in the back.

It was dark and she had no idea where she was going. But she had to try.

When Sarah was outside, the night air was cold and the stars above gave only a weak light. Longingly, she looked for the moon, but it was hidden behind a cloud and could not be seen. She stumbled a bit on the stone path, trying to decide which way to go.

To her right was the hedge maze. Standing tall and green, it did not look inviting. It just looked hard. To her left, Sarah saw heaps and piles of what looked like trash in the distance. Smoke rose lazily between piles. Bordering the edge of the piles there appeared to be what looked like little mushroom houses and straw huts. Squatters huts.

Sarah heard the clucking of chickens in the distance and the garbling of tiny voices.

Goblins.

No, she would have to go into the hedge maze, and...hope for the best. Going near the junk piles and the houses was tempting. The junk piles looked like they would offer places to hide, whereas in the in the maze, if you encountered someone dead on...well...you encountered them dead on.

Sarah no desire to counter the Goblin King dead on anytime soon. Forever would be nice. But she knew her chances were better in the hedge. She outright knew Goblins and what have you were by the junk piles. She had no idea what was in the maze.

Sarah shivered in fear and then mentally slapped herself. Shivering! Now? Not the time. The Goblin King could be hot on her heels, ready with a sneer and a cage of stifling promises to obey.

With evil thoughts of kicking his face in, she entered the hedge maze. Thought's of violence against Jareth gave her the courage she needed to walk alone in the dark.

It struck Sarah again just how far she was from home and how alone she was.

She remembered how her bedroom looked and she felt herself missing it.


	19. Chapter 19

The cold dirt was hard against Sarah's feet as she padded deeper into the maze. A meager shower of light shone wearily down onto her. Still, Sarah was left scrambling around, fumbling in the dark as she had done before.

A lone flicker of lightening lit up the sky nearby. Sarah stood still, the hairs on her neck standing up.

Telling herself it was only lightening, just like back home, Sarah waited for the accompanying clash of thunder.

Nothing.

Taking a deep breath Sarah walked on. Low brunches swung into her face. A prickly leaf tickled her ear. Sarah moved more cautiously.

She had learned her lesson earlier and did not shout 'hello'. Instead she listened hard as she tried to move her bare feet forward.

To her left, beyond the hedge wall adjacent to her, Sarah thought she heard something moving.

Sarah was suddenly glad for the hedged maze. Whatever it was, it wasn't scuttling around like the Goblins in her brother's bedroom.

This seemed to be a willful quiet.

Sarah wanted to curse under her breath but she didn't. Suddenly she understood that it was imperative for her safety to remain as silent as possible.

She prayed that whatever was beside her neighboring wall, that it would remain there and not be aware of her presence.

Naturally her prayers were going to remain unanswered.

Breathing softly, Sarah hunched down to the ground. The underbrush wasn't so thick near to the ground. There were some gaps and holes that you could see through to the other side. Sarah found one that was the size of a quarter. It was dark but Sarah could make out shadows and shapes.

Carefully she looked through it.

Immediately she covered her mouth to smother a gasp.

There was someone on the other side!

Sarah peered closely. She could vaguely make out two shapes. They were long and very dark. Sarah's eyes widened in fear.

It appeared that they were sniffing and crawling close to the ground as well. Sarah heard low clicking sounds as she watched them talk to one another.

A pink tongue slithered out in the black darkness.

Sarah wrenched her face away from the hole and backed away slowly, doing a clumsy backwards crabwalk.

Getting slowly to her feet, Sarah quickly considered her options.

_"I haven't gotten so far very far from the Castle. Maybe I could turn back..."_

A low clicking growling sound came from the other side of the hedge as Sarah heard the branches rustling and giving way.

Suddenly, something was behind her.

Sarah knew that she shouldn't, it would just make things worse, but she screamed anyways.

Running for all that she was worth, Sarah ran in the direction that she had just come from. The pair of creatures followed her, leaping and bounding after her like wild dogs.

Suddenly Sarah's feet went tumbling beneath her as she tripped over a fallen log.

Shivering, she struggled to her feet, but it was too late.

One of the creatures grabbed a hold of her ankle and held on.

Sarah screamed as she felt it's nails dig into her skin, but it was only the beginning of her agony.

Sarah never got a good look at the creature's face, it was too dark and she was struggling and moving to get away.

However, when the thing touched her skin and held on, a horrible thing happened.

Sarah smelled her flesh burning.

It was an unbearable experience. Sarah struggled and dry heaved, desperately looking into the direction of the Castle, praying for help.

The creature never let go.

In fact, the moment that Sarah had the longest eye contact with the thing, she swore she thought it was smiling at her.

In the dark, Sarah detected the glimmer of bright yellow eyes.

Sarah screamed in agony as the thing held on and burned her flesh. She tried to kick at the thing but it only made it worse. Sarah wondered how soon before it reached bone.

Once again, Sarah felt white hot pain. Once again she wanted to faint but she knew she couldn't. There might be a chance she could survive this.

In the distance, Sarah heard dogs barking.

The creature's hissed and Sarah felt leg drop to the ground as the thing slithered up and away.

She gave a raw sob of relief. Pulling back her nightgown, she looked at her ankle and gasped.

It was blackened and burnt. Sarah thought she saw bone.

Leaning over to one side, she dry heaved into the dirt.

A rumbling of movement swept past her as giant black dogs with thick silver collars galloped towards the direction of the creatures. One of them stopped where she was lying prone of the ground and growled at her.

Sarah was trying to push herself upwards when she heard Jareth's voice.

"Begone!" it commanded. The beast loped away towards the others. Hot in persuit of the creatures.

Sarah stared miserably at the ground in pain.

"You fool!"

"I'm hurt" Sarah coughed out. "Please help me"

"You should be dead" Jareth growled. "Stupid fool."

"My ankle" Sarah gasped. Jareth dropped to her side and pushed aside her nightgown.

Without saying a word, he grabbed in his arms. Sarah clung to his neck. In the dark, one of the collared beasts gave a shriek and then there was the terrible smell of burning.

Jareth peered into the dark. Shifting Sarah, he summoned a dark crystal.

In her haze of pain, Sarah thought that it looked like a dark giant sour ball.

With a strong flick of his wrist, he sent the crystal into the deep end of the Labyrinth where the monsters had gone.

There was a loud sound followed by a huge flash of white light. Sarah held her hand to eyes.

There was an intermingling of howls. Sarah could make out the guttural groans of the creatures but also the higher pitch of the giant dogs.

She winced.

Jareth waited for a moment, waiting to see if anything came out of the wreckage. The entire end of that part of the Maze was utterly destroyed. Sarah could see branches and piles of sand and rocks.

Nobody, dog or enemy came back.

Jareth seemed satisified.

"You are so much trouble" he told her. Sarah bit her lip.

"I know" she told him.

Later...

The Healer told him that she would scar.

Such a pity.

Jareth was incensed. It wasn't that he personally cared about the scar, it was the fact that in the Fae world, to be disfigured in any kind of way was demeaning. Jareth planned for Sarah to be presented to the other Fae Courts eventually. He had hoped to show her off to her best advantage.

Long skirts would hide the scar, but still...Jareth was angry.

Sarah sat at the edge of the bed once more, pale and sweaty. The Healer had tended to her burn, but it had hurt fiercely. Jareth had not yet offered anything for the pain.

She suspected that he would not.

\


	20. Chapter 20

"You try my patience, you foolish girl."

Sarah hung her head in shame. She picked the edge of her bandages, looking at the shiny skin of her wound.

"I'm sorry" she mumbled.

"You damn well should be!" Jareth shouted, thrusting his face into hers. "Do you know what those things were?"

"I just got here today!" Sarah offered helplessly. "How could I know that this place would be a muck with monsters?"

She was sitting on the heavy damask of the bed covering, back in the Silver room. From her place on the bed, she was free to watch Jareth as he paced the length of the room, back and forth in his anger.

It was frightening. He slinked back and forth like a caged panther. Sarah could see the tautness of his thigh muscles through his black tights.

She shivered.

Cautiously, she put her good arm around herself, as if preparing for a blow.

Jareth curled his hand into a fist. Sarah eyed it with a shaky look.

"The book never mentioned any of this!" she insisted, using the last shard of her courage.

Jareth looked at her as if she had lost her mind.

"If you were aware of the possibility of this place in your human pathetic mind, then you should have been prepared for other unexplainable things!" he spat.

Jareth's mismatched eyes blazed in anger.

"You will stay alone in this room until I can bear to look at you!"

Sarah cried silently. She now realized the futility of any escape.

"You took me away from my home...my family..."

"I will not get into a discourse of your pathetic human life tonight, Sarah. What's done is done. If you weren't so foolish and hard headed you would not be in this predicament. But alas, even _I_ cannot re-order time to correct your prior stupidity."  
"This is unfair!" Sarah screamed.

Jareth summoned his crop, gripped it and then threw it in her direction. Sarah ducked her head as it whizzed by her and hit one of the bed posts.

"Don't speak to me of unfairness little girl!" he screamed, suddenly all control lost and any semblance of calm undone.

Moving forward, he grabbed Sarah's shoulders and gripped them hard. Sarah bit her lip in pain. Her shoulder was still tender.

"YOU...I move the stars for no one. Including you!" With this exclamation, he gave her a hard shake.

His breath was so close to her face. Sarah thought she could smell cinnamon, and the undertones of springtime.

The back of her mind pricked in uncertain recognition.

Breathing hard he let her go.

"Never again" he murmured. "Never, never again."

Staring at him with glassy eyes, Sarah watched him turn away from and go to the door. Without looking back, he slammed it shut.

Alone in his throne room...

Jareth sat in his chair, his hands to his face as if something were paining him.

"Idiot girl!"

He sat there cursing the girl that he had so loved.

She infuriated him beyond measure. She had done worse to him than when she was here for the first time.

What was it about the Aboveground that helped induce utter stupidity and absolute foolishness?

Suddenly Jareth gave a great heaving sigh.

Had Sarah's spark of specialness disappeared for good?

Was it too much to hope for that she would remember?

He had moved the stars...for her.

Would she remember?

Jareth's body ached from the tension and strain of the day. Suddenly, he felt the weight of all his years bear down on him.

Teenage girls were so infuriating.

What a nuisance! Jareth had warded and locked the door. No one, save himself could get in or out.

Jareth smiled a slow smile of relief and revenge.

Let her cool her wandering heels against the stone walls of the chamber! There was no way for her to escape and go wandering into the Maze. There was no way for her to do anything except sit in that room and stare out the window like some Rapunzel-like Princess in a fairy tale.

Well Sarah had gotten her story book ending alright.

He could see the sun escaping the Horizon outside the throne room window. It was dawn.

Jareth clicked his tongue impatiently. Soon the Lady Gen would be here.

And then what?

He knew his outrageous plans would shock the Lady Gen.

They always did.

But what to do about Sarah? In her previous life, she had those feckless friends of hers, Hogg Brain, Ludo and that ridiculous Knight Diddymus.

Jareth thought of re-introducing them to her now. But to what avail?

Jareth shrugged impatiently to himself.

Infuriating! The nerve of her to commit such a stupid act. Running off...running away from him!

Jareth stared moodily out the window, trying to will morning to come faster.

Sarah...

True to Jareth's prediction, Sarah did indeed rest her heels against the stone walls of the Silver room. That was, after she had kicked them in vain several times.

Sarah winced as she rubbed a hand against her bruised heels.

"Damn" she muttered.

Pulling her hands wearily through her tangled hair, she struggled to her feet.

Through the window Sarah could see that it was nearing Dawn. After the Goblin King had left her, she struggled in vain to find a way out of the room, but it was no use.

She was trapped.

Shivering, she rubbed her hands against her thighs, trying to warm herself after sitting so long on the stone floor.

Suddenly her eyes caught hold of a dark green dressing gown hanging on the edge of the bed. Sarah walked over to the bed and picked it up.

The material seemed warm and soft. Sighing, she put it on.

The softness of the gown lulled her to a sleepy state. Rubbing her tired eyes, Sarah felt the ache of the day pull at her bones.

She longed to sleep.

But would she be safe? Would the Goblin King come back and accost her? Sarah stared mournfully at the door.


	21. Chapter 21

_"Like the leaves that cling to the tree...oh my darling cling to me"_

Sarah dreamed that she fell asleep, propt up against a mound of ice.

No.

That was incorrect. In her dream, she could see that it was actually an ice sculpture. A glittering sculpted man. Sarah was kneeling, or rather pooled around it's feet, like some weak Madonna.

Her hair was loose and flowing down her back. Clad only in a thin white nightdress, Sarah told herself that she should be cold.

Shivering uncertainly, she wrapped her loose cotton gown closer around her body, even though her mind told her this was a dream. In a dream, you were never really cold.

_"With your kiss my life begins..."_

She opened her eyes.

Only a dream.

One does not freeze in a dream, after all.

A snowflake landed on the tip of her nose. It was snowing...and it was cold, or it seemed to be cold. Sarah's muddled thoughts tried to gather themselves.

Looking around her, Sarah saw that she was somewhere and then again she was nowhere.

She was in the woods. Tall pine trees stood grouped together. Snow was gathered on the tops of the branches.

The sky was dark. Sarah thought it was night. The air certainly smelled like night. It was cool and sharp.

An owl hooted in the distance.

Like a dummy, Sarah was rooted to the same spot. She did not rise to go off into the woods and explore. She did not do anything except sit on the cold forest ground, leaning against the ice sculpture as the snow drifted down from the sky.

She was very calm. A child of dreams, she trusted them. She knew no harm could come to her here.

A fluttering of wings broke the silence.

More owls.

Sarah was briefly reminded of the lake and the reeds and brushes where she saw the Owl. The one that led her into all this madness.

But this forest was unfamiliar to her. Her parents did not believe in camping, so Sarah had never been. Aside from the lake, this forest scene was novel to her. Still she was relaxed. At peace.

She leaned back against the ice sculpture and closed her eyes. The wind blew softly and then something changed.

"I could be so kind to you."

"What?" Sarah startled gently. Her hands stopped touching the ground and instead she reached for the ice.

It was cold but it was not ice that her hands touched.

"You make it _so _hard."

"I...do?" she murmured drowsily, not caring that she was talking to the Goblin King. He was not a glittering ice sculpture, he was a glittering man. A glittering fey.

Fear shot through her heart for a moment but Sarah willed herself to be calm. This was a dream after all. It was a refuge of sorts. Nothing bad could happen here.

"If only you remembered" the King said.

"I know the story" Sarah said simply. "A girl wishes away her brother...and the Goblin King offers anything to keep him."

"To make the girl stay" he corrected. "The human version is always absent the moral of the tale"

"Moral? I though that _was_ the moral. To not make wishes" Sarah said.

"Nothing is ever what it seems. Especially in this world."

"But I was not in this world" Sarah told him.

"No" the Goblin King looked at her, his dark eyes searching her green eyes.

"Your fate was to cross over into mine. You were always meant to be here."

"But how?" Sarah sputtered, confusion breaking her daze. "I was born human, not a fey, not a magical being."

"You were born to relive your destiny. It was always meant to be with me" Jareth said, gazing off into the trees, a look of intense concentration on his face. "You were always meant to be my Goblin Queen."

"How? I was born a nuisance. A trouble maker. An unwanted orphan. If anything I was born to be an actress, not a Queen. Least of all a Queen."

"You were born to return to me" the Goblin King said.

"Return...from where?" Sarah asked, still very much confused. Her fingers clutched his calf, a thing of steel muscle encased in white grey tights.

Glittering eyes looked down at her.

"From the dead" he told her.

"I died?"

"You went where I could not follow. Mortal deaths and Fey deaths are different. When we do succumb to the end of our life span, we reach for a new world. We do not go to Hell or Heaven, or whatever it is that mortal do. I made it though so that you lingered, in a limbo of sorts. You were reborn quickly."

"I died?" Sarah repeated again, not believing what he was saying. Although she knew that Goblin King was of sound mind, everything he had said, told her not to do and to do, had come to pass, she could not for the life of her follow his logic.

He nodded, "You died, but you have returned."

"How did I die?" Sarah asked, still in disbelief. Snowflakes landed on her shoulder and she brushed them away impatiently.

"You were murdered" Jareth whispered.

"I was? By who?" Sarah said. The wind blew hard and Sarah grasped Jareth's leg. The force of it shook her body, almost tearing her away.

"By those who will not live to see another snow fall."

"Jareth...I" Sarah began.

She reached up to touch his glittering face. His dark eyes stared down at her. His gloved hands stilled at his sides.

Without thinking, she leaned upwards and kissed him. His cold lips met hers and Sarah felt a thrill of warmth.

_"You touch me...I hear the sounds of Mandolins"_


	22. Chapter 22

When Sarah woke, she found that she was not on the stone floor. She was in the middle of the voluptuous bed, surrounded by various pillows and covered by a thick down quilt.

She was on her back. Laying very still, she looked up at the canopy of her bed and then at the ceiling. The canopy of her bed was made up of some fine gossamer material that was see through.

Outside, some birds hummed in quiet agreement.

_"What a strange dream. I wonder if it happened? After all, anything is possible here."_

Gathering her resolve, Sarah pushed the quilt aside and rose. Putting her bare feet to the stone floor, she glanced around the room. In one corner stood a dresser and on top of it was a pitcher and a basin. Recalling her history text book and the section about the time of Louis the Sun King of France, Sarah guessed that was where she should wash her face.

Feeling like a Colonial person,Sarah went over and poured some water in the basin and rinsed her face. Pouring some more water, she cupped her hands and drank it.

Opening the drawers of the dresser, she searched for clothing but found nothing.

"Do you expect me to go around in a nightdress all day?" she called out.

A knock sounded at the door and Sarah jumped. There was a rustling of keys and then it opened. Three women came in, each holding a bundle of clothing.

They reminded Sarah of nuns. They wore wimples covering the hair and their dark sombre dresses trailed the floors. The wimples cast a shadow over their faces, so Sarah could not discern their features clearly. She was not sure if they were Goblins or Fey.

"Hello..." she begin before she was cut short by one of the women.

"We are here to dress you, Lady" one them said, taking Sarah by the arm and leading beside the bed.

"I can dress myself" Sarah insisted. They ignored her and lifted the nightdress over her blushing head.

"Please..." Sarah said to no avail. Another woman stepped forward with a chemise and other undergarments. They were snow white and ironed with a stiff starch. The undergarments were followed by three layers of petticoats.

With the help of the other women, Sarah was laced into them. Standing before them with at least a semblance of clothing on, Sarah felt a little better and allowed them without protest to help her into an exquisite dark green gown

When she was dressed, a serving woman bowed and then lifted Sarah's skirts and slipped her feet into some dainty silver slippers. They were flat with no heel. Instead a large gem was placed at the front of each shoe. Sarah guessed that they were emeralds.

Another women procured a hair brush from one of her pockets and proceeded to brush Sarah's tangled hair. When she was finished, a silver diadem was pulled from a velvet case hidden in a large dress pocket. The woman placed it reverently on Sarah's head.

"My lady?"one of the women gestured towards a mirror in the room. Curious, Sarah walked towards it.

She looked like a story book princess. The dark green of the gown bought out the green of Sarah's eyes. The glittering crown on her head sparkled against the dark brown of her hair. Like in the dream that she had of the Goblin King and her dancing together in the ballroom, Sarah did not recognize herself.

"The water closet, Madam" one of the women said, showing Sarah small inner chamber closet room that was covered by a curtain. Sarah had passed it before and had not noticed it.

Yes, she certainly felt like a Colonial woman alright. It was unlike the bathrooms at home, more Roman than Colonial. There was a sink with a water tap.

Seeing that she had no complaints, the women bowed without word to Sarah and left the room. Sarah heard the click of the lock, and then silence.

Sarah, seeing her options limited, set herself down on the bed. She hoped that Jareth had plans to feed her. It seemed eons since she last ate anything. Surely Jareth wasn't going to starve his intended Queen?

Or maybe he liked that sort of thing? Having her beg for something as basic as food?

But then rummaging her mind about all the Fairy Tales she had read as a child, the Fae Folk seemed quite hospitable to Sarah. They usually fed you before sticking you in an oven or leading you off a cliff in Fairy Land.

Thinking about a tale she heard about not eating food in fairyland, because if you do you could never leave, she knew she was beyond help. Regardless of whether or not she ate anything, she was stuck here forever.

_"Don't dwell on that. Think of lighter things. Anything! Just do it Sarah!"_

She hoped that whatever he choose to feed her was something that was palatable to a human girl.

Just as she started to count the rumblings of her stomach, another knock at the door sounded and in came the serving women. This time they bore covered dishes instead of clothing.

One of the serving women carried what looked like a folding table. She placed it in front of Sarah and then the women began setting down their dishes.

A napkin was placed discreetly in her lap and then the women exited. Their dark skirts swished out the door and there was the sound of a key against the lock.

Sarah uncovered the plates quickly. She was hungry!

There were several types of fruit and what appeared to be porridge and milk. There was a dish of honey as well as raisins. Another plate held bread and a small cask of butter.

Sarah buttered a piece of bread while looking at the fruit.

She recognized what appeared to be star fruit and grapes, as well as oranges, apples, and lo and behold...peaches! But a few others gave her pause.

She avoided what she could not outright name. In a strange place, now was not the time for experimenting.

She ate the bread and butter and choose an apple and the star fruit. She avoided the rest, looking at the peach with a tingle in her back.

She discovered the apples tasted better here than they did Aboveground. They were fresher and crisper tasting. She thought that there was a hint of nutmeg in the apple, impossible as it seemed. She rather liked it.

The bread too was a dream of difference. It was crisp like a French baguette but it fairly melted in Sarah's mouth.

After an hour or so, the women came back and took the dishes and left the room, making sure to lock the door behind them.

She spent what she guessed was the rest of the morning wandering restlessly around the room. Back and forth from the door to the window. Her slippers made soft clicking noises on the stone floor. She pondered the identity of the serving women.

Where they servants? Or maybe they were slaves!

The Goblin King's haughty demeanor seemed akin to the slave master type. After all she was brought here against her will.

He locked her in this very room.

At least he fed her.

"_He clothed me as well"_ Sarah thought disdainfully, wrinkling her nose at the diadem that was placed on her head. They had not even been married yet and she was already marked for the crown.

Sometime during the afternoon there was a rustling at the door and the serving women came in again bearing dishes of food and drink.

Sarah did not try to make conversation with them this time. She watched from a corner of the room as they set up the little table and laid the dishes out in small rows. When they left, locking the door behind them, Sarah walked over to the food and uncovered the dishes.

Soup and sandwiches. She was not sure what kind of soup or sandwiches, but that's what it was.

It didn't appeal to her just now. She was too anxious from being trapped in this room all day to be hungry. She had enough at breakfast anyways.

She covered the dishes back up and let them go cold while she paced the room. Sooner or later the women would come to take them away.

And then what?

Was she to be in this room all day?


End file.
